Word is out that a certified Covid vaccine could be expected for distribution in three months’ time. Hints are also that the pandemic situation could overall be brought under control by the middle of 2021. This optimism is despite some set-backs in efforts at evolution of a vaccine by principal pharma firms and scientists working at labs across the world. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has stated that a vaccine could be reaching the people by early next year, and his ministry has begun working out the distribution plans. World Health Organisation chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan too has stated as much; that registration process for a new vaccine could be expected by end of this year. By mid-2021, expectations are that one-fifth of the Indian population could have access to a vaccine. This should take care of the vulnerable segments. The infection figures are steadily going up and this is only to be expected in view of the relaxations effected on public activities. Lockdown conditions have been progressively relaxed and economic activities are gaining pace. A complete lockdown for long periods will only kill the national economy, which is already maimed since Demonetization of 2016. Enough of harm has already been done. For a period, the way forward is to live with the pandemic and progressively reduce its spread.
Minister Harsh Vardhan’s utterances may sound like sugar and honey to most who are willingly gullible. The development of a vaccine is posing problems as expected, and there are pauses even for some vaccines at the last stages of development. It is a proven fact that most vaccines globally in use currently took decades to develop. Even after initial breakthroughs, it took years to study the side effects and also shut loopholes in its efficacy. Therefore, it will be a long haul for Indians to access genuine vaccines for Covid-19. Unless, of course, all of us are made guinea pigs on whom the various vaccines will be experimented and the successful ones will be marketed by pharma giants the world over at an enormous price tag. The suspicion on the possibility that these trial vaccines will most likely be tested on Indians arises because almost all African and South American countries including nations previously cooperating with such testings as the Philippines have passed laws which ban trials of new drugs on their citizens.
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Unfortunately, India has steadfastly resisted enactment of such a statute thereby making this the only feasible country, with a vastly uneducated poor populace, as a perfect destination for medical experiments on human beings. This facility helps medicine/vaccine developers save millions of dollars that would necessarily have been spent in the animal testing phase. So, there it is. The extremely eager and willing to please Indian populace is waiting with bated breath for the vaccine to arrive. The Indian health ministry, too, is all prepared to spread the red carpet for these vaccine developers to come and check the efficiency of their products here on genuine human guinea pigs.
