Political economy of COVID-19 Vaccine shortages in India
Published on: 10 April 2021, 01:19 pm
Analysing the data for COVID-19 prevalence rates, relative population sizes and vaccine coverage across Indian states, RAVI DUGGAL explains why India needs a better and more scientific vaccine disbursal policy, and how to rampantly boost our vaccine production capacity through compulsory licensing.
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AS India enters the third phase of its ambitious COVID-19 vaccination drive, many state governments are reporting vaccine shortages and are having to close down some of their vaccination centres, with supplies available for only 2 or 3 days. Most of these states are non-Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) ruled ones, but some BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh are also reporting impending shortages.
What is causing these shortages? One factor is that of our total vaccine production till March, we had exported twice the number of vaccine doses that we had domestically used, as per data furnished in the Rajya Sabha.
other is the very low level of production in contrast to the huge population of the country and its demand.
