Thread by @sritara

THREAD - on how companies mislead, and the media obliges obediently or unwittingly — the case of the elusive Covaxin shot.
1. As vaccine shortages, especially of Covaxin, mount across the country, BBIL issued a release y’day announcing a 200 m dose/annum expansion in capacity.

2. The benefit of the expanded capacity will become available by “Q4 2021”, it said. Preposterously, BBIL claimed that its capacity volumes would now exceed 1 billion doses. Now that is a lot of vaccines.

3. In comparison, Oxford-AZ’s entire planned planned global doses (incl from SII) for 2021 is 2.1 billion doses. Pfizer-BioNTech’s capacity is 3 billion, of which only 2.96 m doses remain available for the rest of 2021.

4. Now, let us look at what BBIL has delivered. Knowing the 90:10 split b/w Covishield and Covaxin, we know that of the about 187 m doses delivered, so far less than 20 m doses have been Covaxin.

5. Anecdotal evidence (incl from Twitter) suggests people are desperately scrounging for their second shot even as they have overshot the scientifically recommended safe window.

6. Now go back to the Centre’s two affidavits in April. In the first of its sworn affidavit to the SC it mentioned two diff capacity numbers — in one instance it said 10 m/month and in another, a few pages down, 20 m/month.

7. Thankfully, it scaled this down in the later affidavit, saying it remains 10 m/month. Till mid-April BBIL’s capacity numbers doing the rounds in the media was 700 m doses/year, implying 58 m doses/month.

8. This sharp scaling down has not led to more aggressive questions in the media about the BBIL’s actual capacity. In its affidavit the Govt said BBIL would increase its capacity to 55 m doses per month — still lower than the 700 m it had been claiming all along.

9. Now, lets get to the one billion story. 1 b doses per year means 83 m doses per month. That is about 44 % higher than what the Govt claimed in its affidavit, which appears fanciful for a vaccine that is desperately in short supply.

10. It is obvious that what BBIL actually wanted to tell us was that its TOTAL all-told vaccine capacity is 1 billion doses. This includes all its existing vaccine lines. None doubt its ability to make good vaccines. But in spinning this fine yarn it has sullied its credibility.

11. But what about the media? First, this report mentions the 700 m doses without checking the credibility of the numbers that are immediately verifiable from other credible known sources.

livemint.com/news/india/bha…

12. It does not even relate the company’s capacity claim with the everyday reality of shortages across India. It digresses nicely into the tech platform but provides no news about how much the company is turning out of its factories.

13. This one, from the Big Daddy in the business of business journalism, allows itself to be led down the garden path, digressing into “multiple production lines” and swallows the 1 b doses/annum claim without as much as a blink.
economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healt…

14. This one falls for the company’s misleading claim about 1 billion doses per annum by naively allowing itself to be misled by BBIL’s digression about its plants’ technical expertise and by its claim that it is supplying states “directly.”

thehindubusinessline.com/companies/bhar…

15. This one is thankfully brief but faithfully reports the company’s release. It avoids contesting any claims made by the company.

business-standard.com/article/curren…

16. Like all journalists, business journalists too have been hampered in the pandemic. But a skeptical approach to companies and their claims would further their credibility a little more, especially in these dark times. (END)

@threadreaderapp pl unroll