Thread by @ProsaicView

1/n The four deadly sins plaguing our vaccination effort – a short thread

2/n Why is India’s vaccination drive so sluggish? We have so far administered 63illion or 6.3 crore doses. With our population of 130 plus crore, we would need to vaccinate at least 70% with two doses, six to eight weeks apart.

3/nWe started with some advantages. We are vaccine factory of the world. We had tie ups with multiple global pharma companies and were also developing our own vaccines. We manage on of the most complex and voluminous vaccination programme for children annually

4/nIn January 2 itself, the DCGI announced it had given emergency use authorisation to two vaccines – one called Covishield, made by Serum Institute with license from Oxford-Astra Zeneca. The other a home grown Covaxin, made by Bharat Biotech & ICMR, which hadn’t completed ph 3

5/n The government started negotiating the prices with both. And then committed four deadly sins.

6/n First deadly sin: It placed piecemeal orders. Most countries were trying to secure as many doses as possible but the government placed orders for just a 1.1 lakh crore doses with SII and 55 lakh doses with Bharat Biotech. It placed more orders in February and again March

7/n This is a problem because if vaccine manufacturers have been guaranteed volumes and have a schedule, they can plan their vaccines better and also priorities domestic supplies over exports. Everything moves a bit more smoothly

8/n Second deadly sin: There is over centralisation. Union govt decides who is to be vaccinated, in which centres, how many vaccines each state will get, which vaccine they will get -- everything down to the last bit, completely losing on flexibility or knowledge of ground level

9/n Mumbai saw that people were not going to vaccination centres so they asked permission to do door to door vaccination. It was not given – though it may be. But if states are responsible for the vaccination process, they need more flexibility to ensure doses aren't wasted

10/n Third deadly sin: Poor communication. On the ground the number of confused people and misinformation is immense. People are getting their ideas and notions from Whatsapp, not official channels that the government could use

n/n Fourth deadly sin: Even though multiple vaccines have been cleared by different global regulators since January, the government has not asked the Indian regulator to speed up the process of approval to those who have tie ups with other Indian makers...

1.1 crore doses, not 1.1 lakh crore * sorry