The Opposition campaign was aimed at creating vaccine hesitancy among the public
On January 2, Samajwadi Party president and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav, shocked everyone by his statement that he would not get vaccinated against Covid-19 as the vaccine that would be administered would be BJP’s vaccine. He added he didn’t trust the vaccine.
The Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already announced that the world’s largest vaccination drive against Covid-19 would start in the country on January 16. Five months later, he again raised questions about the efficiency of the vaccines being administered in the country, though he managed to get his vaccine shots in the initial rounds itself.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are being administered in the country. Russia-made Sputnik is also now available for use. More Indian vaccines are in the pipeline.
The scions of the Nehru family, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra have repeatedly been raising doubts over the vaccines developed in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only took the vaccines, he did it publicly to encourage more and more people to get vaccinated. But, the Opposition has been working tirelessly since day one to derail India’s vaccination drive against Covid-19. The infamous ‘toolkit’ issued by Congress also had instructions to target the Centre on its vaccine policy through ‘friendly journalists’ in the media. A slew of revelations of vaccine wastage and efforts to create vaccine hesitancy among people give credence to the BJP’s suspicion that there is a clear conspiracy to derail the vaccine drive of the Government.
For instance, the Punjab Government led by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh sold all the 1.14 lakh Covaxin doses procured under the state quota to the private hospitals in the State. Vaccine doses procured at Rs 420 per dose were sold to the private hospitals for Rs 1,060 per dose. This is when the State is battling the second wave of Covid-19. After this came to light, there was a massive uproar against the Chief Minister. The Government withdrew the order but not before selling 1.14 lakh doses of Covaxin. The Punjab government was crying shortage of vaccine doses in April.
In another shocker, a Dainik Bhaskar investigation revealed more than 2500 vials of COVID-19 vaccine thrown in the dustbins in Rajasthan. More were recovered from underground. The Health Minister of Rajasthan Dr. Raghu Sharma threatened Dainik Bhaskar journalists with action. He also asked the Dainik Bhaskar management to take action against the journalists who did the story. The Dainik Bhaskar declined and presented more proof of wastage of vaccines in the State.
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav described vaccine as ‘BJP vaccine’, though many of his close relatives took jabs
The percentage of vaccine wastage in Jharkhand was 38 and it was 30 in Chhattisgarh till the first week of June. The Union Government asked them to take steps to stop the wastage of vaccine doses.
The Uttar Pradesh Government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has set a target of vaccinating one crore people in the month of June under its ‘Mission June’. Vaccinating a billion-plus population against Covid-19 was never going to be easy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited three Indian manufacturers of vaccines on November 28: Pune-based Serum Institute of India, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila. He reviewed the vaccine preparedness and discussed with the management of these companies about plans to enhance the vaccine production.
Soon after, the Centre provided monetary assistance of Rs 3,000 crore to the Serum Institute and Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech. On June 3, the Union Government sealed a deal with Biological-E for 30 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine. An advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore was made for this. The phase 1 and 2 trial of the Biological-E vaccine has shown promising results. Only after proper examination of the results, the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) recommended it.
Rajiv Gandhi shifted his position on vaccination drive several times
The Union Government had earlier provided Rs 100 crore to Biological-E for the Research & Development of the vaccine. The Union Government launched “Mission COVID Suraksha- the Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission” when AtmaNirbhar Bharat 3 stimulus packages were announced on November 12 last year. The mission aims to develop 5-6 vaccine candidates.
The efforts are bearing fruit also. More than 23 crore doses of vaccine have already been administered till June 5. Serum Institute will be supplying about 10 crore doses of Covishield in June. Bharat Biotech will supply six crore doses of Covaxin in June which will eventually increase to 10 crore doses per month by September. The Union Government informed the Supreme Court on May 31 that it would vaccinate all the adult population of the country by the end of the year. Earlier, the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had said the Government would procure more than 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine between August and December this year.
Mission June
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath formed more
than 22,000 teams to visit all the villages and conduct COVID tests
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited more than 45 districts in 18 divisions of the State to take stock of the situation on ground. He announced the state will administer one crore doses in June under “Mission June”. More than 6,500 vaccination centres are operational to achieve the target. The gram panchayat heads are being encouraged to ensure everyone in the village is vaccinated. CM Yogi Adityanath announced the State would reward such gram panchayat heads. He had formed more than 22,000 teams to visit all the villages and conduct tests to check the virus.
Meanwhile, the Opposition has been shifting its stance on vaccination. When the vaccination drive started in January this year, the Union Government procured vaccines and provided it to States free of cost. The vaccination programme started with frontline workers and eventually it was opened for all adults on May 1. The Opposition was demanding that it should be decentralised and the States should have power to procure vaccines and vaccinate their population. The Union Government allowed States to procure vaccines. Many States such as Jharkhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, etc., announced they would procure vaccines and inoculate their population free of cost.
On May 12, Opposition parties led by Congress wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the Union Government to procure vaccines and provide it to the State Government. Of all the production in the country, the Union Government is already procuring 50 per cent and providing it free of cost to the States. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to supply free medicines to the State. Similarly, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the Prime Minister asking for free vaccines, though his Government launched a massive fund collection drive to procure vaccines.
In the middle of a raging pandemic, a controversy erupted when it was reported the Congress party had prepared a toolkit to floor the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The alleged toolkit, which was circulated amongst the Congress workers, described how to hoard essential medicines, Oxygen cylinders and hospital beds. It also described how to get the maximum mileage out of the pandemic relief work. The Opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and others have made no effort to encourage people to join the vaccination programme. The Assembly elections are due in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in six-eight months.
Dangerous Dose
In a shocking case, Niha Khan, a nurse in Aligarh, was booked for throwing vaccine-filled syringes in the dustbin without administering it to the beneficiaries. She was marking the beneficiaries ‘administered’ in the app. The authorities recovered 29 such syringes. Medical officer of the centre, Dr. Afreen Zehra, was also booked. The ANI quoted the police officer Vishal Chaudhary, “A complaint was received from the CMO office stating that there were 29 doses of COVID-19 vaccines which were left unused. The vaccination report was also uploaded on the portal without administering the beneficiaries. A case has been filed against ANM Neha Khan and Afreen Zehra under various sections of IPC.”
The Opposition doesn’t want any goodwill amongst the people for the Bharatiya Janata Party just before the polls. Even if more people lose lives, it’s okay for the Opposition. It has been proven beyond doubt that vaccines are a very effective tool against the virus. But, the Opposition doesn’t care. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced in June the state would double the pace of vaccination. More than 6500 centres are already vaccinating the masses in the state.
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is being pitched as a solution to the vaccine shortage. Some are even batting for Chinese vaccine Sinopharm. Recently, it was reported that UAE and Bahrain are going to use other vaccines as booster doses after Sinopharm did not produce desired results. Similarly, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is very costly compared to Indian vaccines and the Pfizer vaccine’s storage and transport requirements are very costly as it requires sub-zero temperature. Despite these known shortcomings of foreign vaccines and advantages of the Indian vaccines, the Opposition batted for the foreign vaccines.
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