Problems of India’s ambitious campaign to vaccinate all adults | The world

The project of India To defeat COVID-19 It seems to have disappeared with the mega vaccine campaign in a few months and his plan now faces all sorts of obstacles, including dose shortages and political controversy.

500 million to 600 million Indians can be vaccinated.

Until now, health workers and “front-line” workers, adults over the age of 45 and those with comorbidities have been able to benefit from Kovax from Govizhield or Bharat Biotech, one of the two vaccines offered in the campaign.

But even at this first, small-scale stage, the campaign has failed, with vaccines running out in some areas and being wasted in others due to reluctance to get vaccinated.

Jayanthi Vasant at the bustling Bangalore Vaccine Center said, “The taxes here are huge and people have not stopped fighting.”

Not enough vaccines

So far, about 150 million VaccinesThat is 11.5% of India’s 1,300 million people.

25 million of them have received their two injections. According to the government, more than 10 million vaccines are in storage in Indian states and 8 million will be available in the coming days.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) produces 60 million to 70 million doses AstraZeneca For the month, its target is to reach 100 million by July. Bharat produces 10 million doses of covaxin per month for its part and has set a target of 60 million to 70 million.

Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine and Novomax – Indian companies have signed agreements to produce other vaccines domestically, such as Russia’s Sputnik V, which is expected to be shipped soon. But they may take months to come out.

“Do we want to control the infection, save lives or both? If we want both, we need a lot of vaccines. We don’t have them,” said D. Jacob John, a retired professor of medical virology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore.

Several states, including Maharashtra and New Delhi, said the worst-affected areas had run out of vaccines, complicating the vaccination program for all adults over 18 years of age.

Conflicts between regions

Despite this and the obligation to make the appointment through a government application, it is feared that an avalanche will occur at the vaccination centers as of Saturday.

On Wednesday, when the application opened, more than 13 million requests were registered, but users complained of technical issues.

In addition, an additional problem arose, the government decision to allow states and private hospitals to order their own vaccines but with different pricing conditions.

As a result, there are clashes between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led central government and opposition-ruling states.

Selected strategy

Some private companies were told the vaccine would not be available for several months.

Considering its large population, experts say India should follow a more selective vaccination policy instead of opening its program to all adults over 18 years of age.

This includes concentrating the vaccine on the worst-affected areas – where 75% of infections occur in nine of India’s 36 regions – and targeting high – risk groups.

“We have to make the available shares very conscientious and fair,” said Lalit Kant, former director of the Medical Research Council of India.