Thread by @Aryan_warlord

Question is what would #India spend on?
Did we have a successful vaccine ready prior to December 2020?
Answer is no.
The #USA gambled $16Bn on 7 vaccines in June 2020 . 3 succeeded, one in trials & 3 failed.
The #USA essentially lost $6-7Bn in the gamble.
Acceptable odds for us?

https://twitter.com/saikrish246/status/1391056512009703427

You make the mistake of thinking BB was successful in the first try . Dr Krishna Ella tried & rejected two prior vaccine designs before settling on Covaxin . Also covaxin needs BSL4 & BSL3 facilities so cannot be made everywhere.

https://twitter.com/saikrish246/status/1391275307999514630?s=19

Also other older facilities are being upgraded to BSL3/4 for Covaxin but these will come online in a few months from now , not before. Haffkine in Mumbai should produce Covaxin from December 2021, a facility in Odisha from June 2022 .

There's always a scope for improvement in hindsight. Maybe things would have moved faster had vaccine demand been high in March itself. Fact is most in India were shunning vaccines till this wave hit .

https://twitter.com/saikrish246/status/1391275607539941379?s=19

While I personally completely agree with the points you've raised i would say that the lack of maturity & bipartisan support on these issues in our nation make such investment a fantasy at best .

https://twitter.com/erismilitarisv2/status/1391283894377349120?s=19

Then there has been much misinformation spread today using a purported list of "advance #vaccine " orders . The reality is
the #USA preordered 400Mn doses, got only 262Mn till date.
#Japan ordered 190Mn doses got only 47.4Mn #vaccines . #Brazil wanted 90Mn got only 47.4Mn

#India as on date has given out more than 170Mn #vaccine doses. We also exported 66Mn doses in January February & March when there were few takers in #India who wanted to get #vaccinated

Also will add that as #COVID19India #vaccine production ramps up July this should see #India produce 130Mn doses per month or around 1.5Bn #COVID19 #vaccine doses per annum.
Pertinent to note that total global production is around 1.5Bn doses per annum as of now.

By September as Everything goes into full steam #India should be producing 2Bn doses of #COVID19India #vaccine per annum . That will be roughly 4/5th of global production then.

It is nothing short of miraculous & points to an herculean effort by all concerned that #India will be making six #COVID19 #vaccines
Indigenous- #Covaxin #ZycovD & BB Nasal vaccine.
Licenced- #CovishieldVaccine #SputnikV & #JohnsonandJohnson .

https://twitter.com/Aryan_warlord/status/1381328053800890371?s=19

Shri @ArvindKejriwal seems to believe everyone can make #Covaxin .we need BSL4 level facilities to grow the #COVID19 virus for making covaxin . This is a small snippet of what that means .
Will add there are only 22 BSL4 facilities globally. 3 in #India