Letters | Coronvirus vaccine: around India in 100 days

Given that the world’s largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people can conduct a general election in 40-60 days, why can’t it set itself a 100-day vaccination challenge?

Reading Time:2 minutes

Health workers conduct a door-to-door survey for the first shot of Covid-19 vaccine for people older than 50 years and with co-morbidities in a village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on December 14. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:30am, 26 Dec 2020Updated: 7:30am, 26 Dec 2020

Covid-19 has brought the world to a halt. Lives and livelihoods across India have been lost. Our goal should be to inoculate the entire country within 100 days of the vaccine being freely available. We conduct general elections covering the entire 1.3-billion-plus population within 40-60 days. Surely we can inoculate everybody within 100 days. We have to prepare blueprints and deliver. Ideally, the vaccine should be free.

This 100-day vaccination challenge should be led by the prime minister. Narendra Modi should establish a Covid-19 “war room”, a central control with real-time information on inoculations, by city and by village. The precise number of doses required has to be forecast. There should be a daily target for inoculation by region and city and it should be monitored daily.

Assuming a target of inoculating 80 per cent of the 1.38 billion Indians in the first round, we need 1.1 billion doses. Pharmaceutical companies need to augment production exponentially, after clearances. Our budget for the vaccines is US$7 billion or US$6.36, i.e. Rs 470 per person. The research into cheaper vaccines must continue.

The vaccines have to be stored and transported at specific temperatures. The challenge will be to transport to remote villages.

Private companies have robust cold chains and distribution systems which can reach remote villages – such as for ice-cream. Multinational companies will no doubt happily lend a hand and governments should team up with them. Corporations could donate their annual social responsibility budgets to the inoculation drives.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Coronvirus vaccine: around India in 100 days

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Given that the world’s largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people can conduct a general election in 40-60 days, why can’t it set itself a 100-day vaccination challenge?

Letters | Coronvirus vaccine: around India in 100 days

Given that the world’s largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people can conduct a general election in 40-60 days, why can’t it set itself a 100-day vaccination challenge?