Undermining ‘vaccination for all’
April 27, 2021 12:02 am | Updated 12:23 am IST Just when the spread of COVID-19 has reached catastrophic proportions, with the daily case-load rising faster than that seen anywhere in the world since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Government of India has acted by unveiling a completely revamped vaccine strategy. Second, and more importantly, a significant deregulation of the vaccine market has been effected and vaccine manufacturers have the freedom to sell 50% of their vaccine production to State governments and private hospitals, and at prices that can be substantially higher than that hitherto fixed by the government. Handing over the reins The new vaccine strategy raises a number of questions, not the least from the manner in which the central government has given up its control over the market for vaccines, a key feature of the vaccine roll-out plans thus far. Onus on States It is the face of this vaccine supply-crunch that the government has announced the new vaccine strategy, by opening vaccination to all adults in the country, and allowing vaccine producers to sell 50% of their production directly to State governments and private hospitals. The government has not fixed the vaccine prices and has allowed the producers to pre-declare the prices they would charge from the State governments and private hospitals, a sharp departure from the extant strategy.
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