As the world is eagerly and impatiently waiting for a safe and efficacious vaccine for inoculation against COVID-19, the Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij testing positive for the virus just a fortnight after he voluntarily got administered a trial dose of Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed Covaxin raises questions about the rush for getting the vaccination, especially among some VIPs. In their bid to reassure the people at large about a safe antidote and faith in the science, high profile politicians are either announcing their willingness to be ‘subjects’, i.e., volunteers for one or the other vaccines at different stages of clinical trial or actually getting the shots. Though highly laudable, these experimentations should not be guided by the maxim of desperate situations requiring desperate remedies. This may prove counter-productive. In fact, the VIPs volunteering for getting the shots apparently exhibit their national-cultural traits and political convictions as well. The names are illustrative, indeed. They include a daughter of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, three former US Presidents – Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton – and our very own, controversial Haryana minister and BJP leader Vij.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been clear on the search for the all-important vaccines. It says: “No vaccine has been found as yet. Many potential vaccines for COVID-19 are being studied and several large clinical trials may report results later this year. If a vaccine is proven safe and effective, it must be approved by national regulators, manufactured to exacting standards and distributed.”
In sharp contrast to the circumspection shown by the three former US Presidents, while offering to take the shots, Russian President Putin has thrown such precautions to the winds. It sounds like the Cold War competition between the former USSR and the USA over who would be the first to get the vaccine out in the market. President Putin virtually flexed his muscles when he claimed a corona virus vaccine developed in his country has been registered for use and one of his daughters has been inoculated. Speaking at a government meeting Putin recently said that the vaccine has proven efficient during tests, offering a lasting immunity from the corona virus. He emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests. Russia is the first country to register a corona virus vaccine, even though many scientists in the country and abroad have been skeptical and questioning the decision to register the vaccine before Phase 3 trials that normally last months and involve thousands of people.
Undeterred by such warnings, Putin has ordered the authorities to begin mass vaccinations with the Sputnik V vaccine. “Let’s agree on this – you will not report to me next week, but you will start mass vaccination … let’s get to work already,” Putin reportedly told Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova who said large-scale vaccination could begin on a voluntary basis in December.
On the other hand, the three former US Presidents have launched an awareness campaign before the Food and Drug Administration is set to meet to decide whether to authorize a COVID-19 vaccine produced by biopharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNtech. This is done in the backdrop of widespread vaccine skepticism in the US that is proving to be yet another setback for public health officials and political leaders to tackle. Significantly, Obama, Bush and Clinton have categorically explained they would take the vaccine even before television cameras “once” it is approved by the country’s regulators and top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci. “I promise you that when it’s been made for people who are less at risk, I will be taking it on TV or having it filmed just so that people know that I trust this science and what I don’t trust is getting COVID,” Obama said. His two predecessors also echoed him.
A Gallup poll in the USA shows around 42 per cent of the people in that country won’t be willing to take the vaccine, while 37 per cent said they won’t get it because they felt timeline of its development was rushed. Another 26 per cent said they wanted to wait until they knew for sure that the vaccine is safe.
The Haryana health minister tested positive before he was scheduled to get a second shot of the Bharat Biotech’s vaccine on December 18, exactly 28 days after the first one on November 20. Bharat Biotech clarified that the vaccine had been designed to be efficacious only after participants in trials received two doses 28 days apart.
The question may arise why the minister was in such a tearing hurry to be a volunteer. More than anything else, it could be due to his loyalty to his party and he is egged on by the hurry that the government seems to be in to present a vaccine to Indians since clapping and lighting candles seem to have failed in invoking the higher spirits to help the countrymen.
There is no doubt this vaccine will imply huge amounts of the exchequer being drained out. The tearing hurry being demonstrated by the pharmaceutical giants is not due to concern for people dying of the infection. It certainly is to capture the market first and cash in. Eventually, how safe people will be after taking this vaccine is no one’s concern. The lookout is for the early bird that gets the worm.