NEW DELHI— India started inoculating health workers on Saturday in what is likely the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination campaign, joining the ranks of wealthier nations where the effort is already well underway.
India is home to the world’s largest vaccine makers and has one of the biggest immunization programs. But there is no playbook for the enormity of the current challenge.
Indian authorities hope to give shots to 300 million people, roughly the population of the US and several times more than its existing program, which targets 26 million infants. The recipients include 30 million doctors, nurses and other front-line workers, to be followed by 270 million people who are either over 50 or have illnesses that make them vulnerable to Covid-19.
For workers who have pulled India’s battered health care system through the pandemic, the vaccinations offered confidence that life can start returning to normal. Many burst with pride.
“I am happy to get an India-made vaccine and that we do not have to depend on others for it,” said Gita Devi, a nurse who was one of the first to get a shot. Devi has treated patients throughout the pandemic in a hospital in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state in India’s heartland.
The first dose was administered to a sanitation worker at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in the capital, New Delhi, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started the campaign with a nationally televised speech.
“We are launching the world’s biggest vaccination drive and it shows the world our capability,” Modi said. He implored citizens to keep their guard up and not to believe any “rumors about the safety of the vaccines.”
It was not clear whether Modi, 70, had received the vaccine himself as other world leaders have in an effort to demonstrate the shot’s safety. His government has said politicians will not be considered a priority group in the first phase of the rollout.
Health officials haven’t specified what percentage of India’s nearly 1.4 billion people will be targeted by the campaign. But experts say it will almost certainly be the largest such drive globally.
The sheer scale has its obstacles and some early snags were identified. For instance, there were delays in uploading the details of health care workers receiving the shots to a digital platform that India is using to track vaccines, the Health Ministry said.
Shots were given to at least 165,714 people on Saturday, Dr. Manohar Agnani, a Health Ministry official, said at an evening briefing. The ministry had said that it was aiming to inoculate 100 people in each of the 3,006 vaccination centers across the country.
News cameras captured the injections in hundreds of hospitals, underscoring the hope that getting people vaccinated is the first step to recovering from the pandemic that has devastated the lives of so many Indians and bruised the country’s economy. India is second only to the US in the number of confirmed cases, with more than 10.5 million. The country ranks third in the number of deaths, behind the US and Brazil, with over 152,000.
India on January 4 approved emergency use of two vaccines, one developed by Oxford University and UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and another by Indian company Bharat Biotech. Cargo planes flew 16.5 million shots to different Indian cities last week.
But doubts over the effectiveness of the homegrown vaccine have created a hurdle for the ambitious plan. Health experts worry that the government’s approval of the Bharat Biotech vaccine—without concrete data showing its efficacy—could amplify vaccine hesitancy. At least one state health minister has opposed its use.
“In a hurry to be populist, the government (is) taking decisions that might not be in the best interest of the common man,” said Dr. S.P. Kalantri, the director of a rural hospital in Maharashtra, India’s worst-hit state. Kalantri said the regulatory approval was hasty and not backed by science.
In New Delhi, doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, one of the largest in the city, demanded they be administered the AstraZeneca vaccine instead of the one developed by Bharat Biotech. A doctors union at the hospital said many of its members were a “bit apprehensive about the lack of complete trial“ for the native vaccine.
“Right now, we don’t have the option to choose between the vaccines,” said Dr. Nirmalaya Mohapatra, vice president of the hospital’s Resident Doctors Association.
The Health Ministry has bristled at the criticism. It says the vaccines are safe and that health workers will have no choice in deciding which vaccine they get.
Against the backdrop of the rising global Covid-19 death toll—it topped 2 million on Friday—the clock is ticking to vaccinate as many people as possible. But the campaign has been uneven.
In wealthy countries including the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, millions of citizens have already been given some measure of protection by vaccines developed with revolutionary speed and quickly authorized for use.
But elsewhere, immunization drives have barely gotten off the ground. Many experts are predicting another year of loss and hardship in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil, which together account for about a quarter of the world’s Covid-19 deaths.
More than 35 million doses of various Covid-19 vaccines have been administered around the world, according to the University of Oxford.
While the majority of the Covid-19 vaccine doses have already been snapped up by wealthy countries, COVAX, a U.N.-backed project to supply shots to developing parts of the world, has found itself short of vaccines, money and logistical help.
2 comments
Y the VAX is doomed ? That should NOT even be a question !
1st – Only 200000 are being vaxed in a day ! At this rate,it will take 20 years to vax 100%
2nd – In a a few days,people who were vaxed will start dying, and then the number of daily vaxes, will go down – which is pure disaster
3rd – Most Important is not that antibodies are created or not.The key issue is ,will the Vax, prevent transmission, to those Not Vaxed
4th – A person who naturally has created,or can create antibodies,will get NO Marginal gains from the VAX
5th – Soon the mutated strains will hit India – and that will make the entire VAX supply chain a DUD (as the VAX is useless on the mutated strains)
6th – Those who took the 1st shot, MAY NOT take the 2nd shot, and that will make the VAX useless
7th – The Mutated virus in Mexico,Brazil and UK /EU has found new ways to enter and attack the organs.Which is Y the VAX roll out there, is measured and cautious.In other words, the attack protocol of the mutated virus (in terms of its attack methodology on healthy cells) has CHANGED.No one knows what mutations,the Indian VAX will bring
8th – Whatever Chaiwala touches is doomed – and so will the VAX be doomed
9th – Issue is NOT many Indians will die in 3 months – it is how many Indians will become Zombies – 3-5 years down the road
10th – To VAX 300 million will take 5 years, at todays strike rate – which is doom by itself.If 300 million are not vaxed in 9 months – THE VAX will fail in any case
11th – The VAX should 1st target the high density population areas like Delhi,Mumbai etc – but the Indian VAX numbers on a per capita basis (to local population) IS NOT COMING from the HIGH DENSITY AREAS. Chaiwala is using Snall Town Indians as GUINEA PIGS in the 1st place !
The most crowd contact, is of Politicians and RSS social workers (who are like John the Baptist).WHY NOT VAX THESE PEOPLE IN THE 1ST PHASE – AND THEN EXPORT TO BRAZIL ?
Indians have to do back to basics ! dindooohindoo
Cow Dung,Cock Dung, Bird Dung . Goat Dung ,Cow Piss, Goat Piss Elephant Piss
Elephant Urine
Elephant urine “gajamutra” is used as an alkaline decoction preparation for a supposed cure to malignant sores. [ Ci.9.16 ] [ Ray 131 ]
Goat Dung and Urine
Goat droppings “ajashakrt” are prescribed as an accessory to surgical cauterization and is used for cauterizing diseased skin. In powdered form after drying and compounding with honey and cow’s urine it is used as a linctus for jaundice. [ Su 12.3 ] [ Utt.44.19 ] [Ray 130 ] Goat urine “ajamutra” is an ingredient for a paste that restores the natural colour to a cicatrix. [ Ci.I.86 ] [ Ray 130 ]
Cock Dung and other Birds’ Droppings
The dung of a specially fed cock “kukkutapurisha” is prescribed as an ingredient for a plaster used to cure malignant skin diseases [ Ci.9.15 ] [ Ray 132 ]
The Indian COVID VAX disaster !
The Curse of the Chaiwala (Indian PM) on COVID.
2 months ago,the daily Indian VAX was 2 lacs.Yesterday it was 27 lacs
2 months ago,daily COVID cases was 12000,yesterday it was 47000 ! Ain’t this disaster ?
As the VAX picked up,the COVID cases have trebled,and worse is to come !
The issue is NOT the dead – but the ease of transmission ! Transmission efficiency has increased – post the VAX ! Y is that I wonder ?
Chaiwala’s Hindoosthan is heading to a 2nd lockdown ! No other nation is facing this post VAX spike ! Y have the covid cases shot up – are they the VAXed or is it that the VAXed are making antibodies – but the TRANSMISSION HAS SOMEHOW increased (as the VAX was NOT meant to STOP transmissions)
Another disaster is Brazil (highest number of daily case)! Guess what ? Brazil used the Indian VAX and Bolsonaro wanted the Hanuman Sanjeevni ! This is a dashing Brazilian general with a beautiful wife ! This is what happens to those who come to India,take advice from Chaiwala and become the Chief Guest at the Hindoo Dindoo Republic Day !
Indian lockdown cometh,which will shut down manufacturing,block GST revenues,cut down on social aid programmes and LOWER GLOBAL OIL AND COMMEX PRICES.
Who will gain by lowering LOWER GLOBAL OIL AND COMMEX PRICES ? CHINA AND CHAIRMAN XI ! And so in the summer the PLA will return for Tourism,in Ladakh,AP and Bhutan !
Who will LOSE by lowering LOWER GLOBAL OIL AND COMMEX PRICES ? Aussie,Brazil … – ALL INDIAN STRATEGIC ALLIES AGAINST CHINA !
Whichever you see it,Hindoosthan and Chaiwala are doomed.dindooohindoo !
It is the Curse of the Chaiwala (Indian PM) !
In Phase 3 – the COVID will become MORE DEADLY AND MORE TRANSMISSIBLE AND IN PHASE 3 THE VAXED INDIANS WILL START DYING ! And that is when the PLA will return