Delivering the COVID vaccine across India will be a challenge and the Government must be prepared to face a few setbacks
We should be clear about one thing: The COVID-19 outbreak might not be the last such pandemic to scourge mankind. And while pandemics usually occur every few centuries, the next one could be just around the corner. We have in the past nine months developed and deployed protocols, technology and, most importantly, bolstered public health systems. Yet, thousands have died in India and we may not know the accurate death toll for some more time to come. Even going by the Union Health Ministry’s data as updated on Thursday, the single-day rise of 24,712 COVID-19 cases and 312 fatalities has pushed India’s virus caseload to 1,01,23,778 and the death toll to 1,46,756; and sceptics don’t seem to be too kind on the Government when they proclaim that the establishment is deliberately downplaying the figures to shroud its incompetence and poor handling of the scourge. But as multiple vaccines are developed to combat the virus that has ripped the global economy asunder, we should be pragmatic about how the Government will deliver the vaccine across the country. There will be missteps and some failures, too, from people jumping the queue to the almost certain petty corruption, many of which instances will be played up by those trying to score political points. There is almost certainly going to be an anti-vaccine campaign as well, by some because they don’t believe in vaccinations and by others because they will say that the technology rolled out to manage the deployment will be an affront to their right to privacy. There will always be malcontents and those who are dyed-in-the-wool anti-establishment people disguised as libertarians.
Thankfully, as of now, there is widespread support for inoculation among the public in India who have witnessed how the nation eradicated polio and has taken massive strides in public health in the past two decades. There will have to be fairness in how the vaccine is rolled out and we must prioritise frontline healthcare and security staff as well as senior citizens who are among the most susceptible groupings to the risk to contracting the virus. And there should be an active campaign by the Government to curb the inevitable spread of fake information. Many individuals and entities have rightly argued that false information and fake news have been a pox on democracy and fake news and information on healthcare carry the very clear and present danger of death. Several groups on social media sites are already filled with snake-oil solutions such as immunity boosters which actually do nothing to stop the spread of the virus. This is a problem that policymakers on the health front have to deal with as urgently as they are tackling the challenges of deployment. Already, amid mounting concerns over the detection of a mutated and more virulent strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom (UK), one State after another is scampering through to trace the UK returnees in the past month, with the Meghalaya Government altogether barring the entry of individuals from the European country into the State with immediate effect. In view of such scary developments, it is, therefore, essential on several fronts that India deals with the pandemic and gets back to work with its full might, intent and purpose.