The first wave of COVID-19 came as a surprise. Nations around the world were ill-prepared to tackle the pandemic. The American and European countries could not prevent the devastation of the pandemic, despite economic muscle science and scientific knowledge. The suffering of India as a result of the new coronavirus during the first outbreak is therefore understandable, although certain measures taken by governments afterwards appear to be wrong. But a year later, the more comprehensive second phase was decidedly man-made, as the Supreme Court in Allahabad pointed out: ‘It is a shame that the government never planned in advance, even though the government knew of the extent by COVID Second Wave. ‘ Although the courts’ comments were on the Uttar Pradesh government’s handling of the recent outbreak of COVID, it is more applicable to the central government, which has been chairing the country’s anti-COVID response right from the start.
More recently, the government of India has started announcing measures that have been pending for a long time. The BJP leaders mocked Rahul Gandhi, describing him as a lobbyist for foreign companies when congressional leaders asked the center to grant emergency permission to the vaccines cleared by foreign regulators. Now the Modi government has decided to allow the same foreign vaccines.
When the US government provided $ 11 billion in aid to eight major pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and signed purchase orders with them guaranteeing the acquisition of vaccines as early as July 2020. The Government of India has now decided to grant a credit of 4500 million to Serum Institute. and Bharat biotechnology. Such an excessive delay in responding to the request for fiscal support has severely undermined the production of vaccines to meet the demand for vaccination.
Given the rapid spread of the second wave, there was a demand to vaccinate all Indian adults. The center rejected it, claiming it follows a scientific approach. But the central government conceded to this demand, only after the daily new business reached almost 3 lakh.
Experts have suggested that scientific knowledge should be shared in pandemic times, so that the capacity of pharmaceutical companies that have not discovered the vaccine should also be used to promote production. The U.S. government has ensured that Merck manufactures the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The government of India took several months to do the same. Just recently, the center facilitated the production of Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotechnology at three of the domestic public enterprises.
Vaccine nationalism must be detested. But no country can export vaccines at the expense of its vaccination program. But the center decided to deliver 64 million doses, even as fears of the deadly second wave hung over the country. A false sense of triumphalism contributed to this irrational policy. The government of India imposed export curbs only after the daily new business was hampered.
Despite the experience of TablighiJamaat during the very early stages of the pandemic, the central and Uttarakhand state governments allowed more than three million to take a sacred dive, turning the KumbhMela into a potential super-distributor. Eventually, Prime Minister intervened, rather too late to virtually call off the Kumbh. Early decision in this regard would have been an effective measure for public health. Prime Minister was proud of the massive mobilization of people for the Bengali election rallies. The Electoral Commission of India and the Center refused to heed the sensible proposal to shorten the protracted election in more than one phase in West Bengal. Thus, the late-kind measures of the Modi government did not stop the tide of the pandemic.
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