There are heated discussions in all media, forums, groups about the difficulties and shortage of Covid vaccine supply internally and criticism of the Modi government for exporting Corona vaccines to other countries, even when there is shortage in the country. This attack is done without understanding the ground realities of the Corona vaccine scenario, locally and internationally!
Let us understand clearly, that as of now, there are two vaccines manufactured in India.
(a) Covishield from Astrazenica-Oxford. Serum Institute is authorized to just manufacture it and it is not a proprietary brand. It is only authorized to manufacture the vaccine in their Pune facility. So it is not an Indian vaccine! As per the agreement between Astrazenica and Serum Institute, some share of this production has to be sent abroad to various countries, as per WHO policies, as well as contractual agreement with various countries. Government of India and Serum Institute have to abide by these agreements, otherwise, they will be charged with breach of contract and lose their credibility internationally and diplomatically. Secondly, as per their agreement, the various components for vaccine production are to be supplied by USA and any breach of contract can stop this supply, affecting vaccine production seriously.
(b) Covaxin is a Bharati Biotech research product and is totally Indian! But the company has only limited capacity to produce vaccine and can't cater for the entire country though efforts are on to ramp up production to over one crore vaccines per month.
There are several other vaccines in the pipeline like Sputnik V by Dr Reddy's and others. Even Sputnik V is a Russian vaccine and Dr Reddy's lab is to be allowed to produce in India as a contractual permission.
Hence the campaign to criticise the government, without understanding ground realities, is wrong and will vitiate the atmosphere and seriously impact control of Covid pandemic. We can't ban export of Covaxin unilaterally. The recent statement and threat that Serum Institute will not be allowed to send vaccine out of Pune and Maharashtra is ridiculous and dangerous! It will seriously hit the supply chain management of Covid vaccine to all parts of the country. It may result in the Serum Institute shifting their facility to some other state or even another country!!
Source. What'sApp
Tailpiece.
Got up late, by half an hour, from our usual time, the chores and was ready by a 10' to 10. Went about our work. Video called Ammu and we had a rather long chat. Ammu and Mithun had just returned from Payyannur, after attending a wedding in Mithun's family. However, the marrying couple and two other friends of theirs were tested positive for Covid and therefore, Mithun-Ammu had to go into quarantine in a room, within their house. The 'rt-pcr' tests were carried out on them yesterday and the results were awaited later in the day.
By about 2230 hrs, we were informed by Ammu that their tests were negative and hence, they were out of quarantine! Phew!!
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