1/ India is setting global records for COVID cases—and the numbers are massively undercounted. Hospitals are full. Patients have died as hospitals have run out of oxygen. Cremations are taking place in parking lots and parks.
2/ Colleagues and I are putting together guides on how to care for COVID at home (more Indian language translations to come) because the situation is so dire.
https://twitter.com/paimadhu/status/1386460569545310210?s=20
3/ And it’s not just India that’s suffering.
Cases are on the rise in the region.
There’s still time to act: masking, social distancing, ventilation, testing, and vaccination.
Cases are on the rise in the region.
https://twitter.com/paimadhu/status/1386763633934352385
There’s still time to act: masking, social distancing, ventilation, testing, and vaccination.
4/ Indian PM Modi must do better. You can’t vaccinate your way out of a surge. Only mitigation measures take effect immediately. Modi must reinstitute masking & social distancing, & this time do so humanely, providing people the social supports they need to weather this crisis.
5/ The Biden administration must also do better. It announced plans to share up to 60M doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other countries, once cleared as safe by the FDA.
6/ The AZ vaccine is a 2-dose vaccine, so 60M doses is equal to 30M people vaccinated. India has a population of ~1.4B, so this is just enough to vaccinate 2% of its population.
Low- and middle-income countries will need 8B doses of vaccine to get to 80% vaccination coverage.
Low- and middle-income countries will need 8B doses of vaccine to get to 80% vaccination coverage.
7/ Plus USG donations won’t happen right away. At best, 10M doses might be released in the coming weeks (i.e. 5M people vaccinated).
8/ This weekend, the U.S. lifted obstacles to the export of raw materials to India for vaccine manufacturing.
Serum Institute in India is the world’s BIGGEST vaccine manufacturer, but they can’t make vaccine out of thin air.
Serum Institute in India is the world’s BIGGEST vaccine manufacturer, but they can’t make vaccine out of thin air.
9/ We should help ramp up the production of raw materials for the entire world.
10/ The U.S. and others are hoarding COVID vaccine. We have so much vaccine supply that we don’t know what to do with it. American demand for vaccines is plateauing.
Other high-income countries are hoarding vaccine, too:
healthpolicy.duke.edu/sites/default/…
Other high-income countries are hoarding vaccine, too:
healthpolicy.duke.edu/sites/default/…
11/ The pandemic has shown the dangers of relying on the pharma industry & wealthy nations for their vaccine supply. It’s not enough to donate our excess supply. We’ve got to help massively scale up production.
12/ We need to share intellectual property and manufacturing know-how, supply raw materials, help build local manufacturing capacity, and build local manufacturing expertise so that every country can be self-reliant in a pandemic.
13/ Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers have insisted on sweeping liability protections that make it difficult for poorer countries, unable to guarantee those protections, access. These companies want to protect their profits over human lives.
nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opi…
nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opi…
14/ USG should leverage its patents on Spike protein stabilization tech (used in NIH-Moderna, Pfizer, J&J vaccines) to nudge pharma to license technology & manufacturing know-how to contract manufacturing orgs & to not hold countries hostage with ridiculous indemnity clauses.
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