Talk:Vaccine Maitri

Propaganda?

The editors of this page would be well-advised to read this twitter thread by Sam Jawed. In particular:

Basically 84% of the exports were commercial deals and contractual commitments of SII to GAVI / AstraZeneca. Remaining 16% were grants by the government. The #VaccineMaitri umbrella covered all types of vaccine exports. 10/n

In the light of this, the lead sentence claiming a grand "humanitarian gesture" is a tad bit overblown. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 00:08, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

The truth comes out slowly and quietly now. "It is important to look at these in detail, BJP says. It is apparently a "myth" that India exported vaccines while neglecting its own citizens. Well, Serum Institute was making 60 million doses a month, and the government was buying only 10 million a month in January and February. In any case, BJP gives us exactly the same figure. Only 16% of the exports were grants. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 21:18, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

References

The export crunch

What is ironic in the midst of all the VaccineMaitri brouhaha is that the current ban on exports is blocking even orders which had bee placed and already paid for.

Bangladesh had contracted for 30 million (300 lakh) doses of Covishield at 5 million (50 lakh) doses a month for six months, but only 7 million of the paid shipments actually arrived between January and February.

So India, which never bothered to order doses in time, is now monopolising all the production while other countries are getting starved.

Nepal is reeling under the same pandemic that India is going through, but India won't send it vaccines. Even 65 year olds who had received their first does in February don't have a second dose now to round off their immunisation. This is hardly any kind of maitri. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 00:36, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Well put. Also see this report. TrangaBellam (talk) 20:14, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw that. When there was credit to be claimed, it was all the "Government of India" that was doing it. Now that things have gone south, it is Poonawala that has to take the blame.

But India Cable points out more serious problems:

But setting perceptions aside, the truth is that despite India having exported over 64 million doses last year at great cost to its own citizens, the world is not toasting the Indian PM for global leadership in jabs. Instead, there is deep anxiety worldwide not only about India’s inability to meet its international commitments, but also about its actions accelerating the second wave, which could set back global efforts to resume normal life.

If God forbid, the Indian virus was to go to one of those countries that were denied vaccines by the export crunch, India is going to become the villain of the world. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 21:26, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

References