Deutsche Welle (English edition)
India COVID vaccination aims for 'critical mass' in 8 months: Serum CEO
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), told DW that India hopes to quickly vaccinate its most vulnerable people and vaccine hesitancy is diminishing as more data becomes available.
DW: It has been over a week since India began its nationwide COVID vaccination drive. How do you think the inoculation is going?
Adar Poonawalla: It's been going well. We have managed vaccine hesitancy also very well. People are fully aware and educated on what can and cannot go wrong. We [India] are already in the top 10 countries, as we have inoculated more than a million people within a week. And this will continue to scale up in the coming weeks.
Why have some people been hesitant to take a COVID vaccine shot? Are they waiting for more data on safety and e cacy?
Vaccine hesitancy is slowly going down. People are observing mass campaigns and becoming better informed about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, especially Covishield. [Covishield is what the AstraZeneca vaccine is called in India].
This is building confidence in people who were perhaps hesitant earlier about getting vaccinated.
I don't think the general population will wait for further data from clinical trials. They will
observe the millions of people who are being vaccinated, and that will be proof enough that everyone is safe and protected. That will encourage more people to come forward and take vaccines.
At the moment, there are so many people who want to take a vaccine that it doesn’t really matter that some people don't want to take it.
Of course, this is not an ideal situation; we want everyone to be vaccinated as that ensures safety for everyone. But the trend is definitely improving as we can see.
That said, there is more and more data coming — 6-months data, and 1-year data. As more gets published, it will certainly build more confidence in long term stability and efficacy.
The feeling now is that the single most awaited product of 2021 has not been received with overwhelming demand. Is that sur
prising?
That feeling is diminishing, and everyone is becoming more and more enthusiastic. As more vaccines become available, this trend will become even more positive. At the moment, there are few vaccines to choose from, so, people are waiting for more vaccines to be licensed.
Going by the trend now, when do you predict the "critical mass" of the population being vaccinated so as to break transmission chains?
We are hoping over the next six to eight months the critical mass population of India will be vaccinated. This includes the most vulnerable people: the elderly, people with comorbidities etc. For now, we have set ourselves that target.
How do you see SII’s role in vaccinating developing countries in light of the WHO's recent comments slamming rich countries for taking up supplies?
SII has always been focused on developing countries because they struggle with equitable access to vaccines due to budgetary constraints.
SII has always been filling this gap in the last 3-4 decades and will continue to do so in this pandemic. The priority of all SII COVID vaccines will be for India and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs).
As the top producer of vaccines for the developing world, does Serum have a plan to get vaccines to poor countries, and what are the challenges?
Yes, we remain focused on providing vaccines to poorer countries. The only thing we are waiting for is the WHO pre-qualification.
As soon as the experts get an opportunity to complete their analysis of the submissions, we will start supplying vaccines to COVAX and other poorer countries.
A number of countries in India's neighborhood have received the Covishield vaccine. What is the strategy going forward?
The neighboring countries that received the vaccine doses were part of an Indian diplomacy strategy of helping out the neighbors.
And we remain committed to exporting vaccines all over the world to help out both rich and poorer countries. We must focus on prioritizing the gaps and inequalities first and try to address them as soon as poss
ible.
Has the recent re at your factory a ected the rollout of the vaccines?
The recent fire at SII was a tragedy, as five young adults lost their lives. However, this will not affect production of the coronavirus vaccines. It will, however, affect some other vaccines that we were planning to expand on.
It will not affect existing supplies and commitments as they will be produced from the existing plants. This includes the BCG, and the Rotavirus vaccine, among others. It was mainly new capacities that were affected.
This will take close to two years to rebuild but that capacity was aimed at entering new markets and additional countries. The existing supply for older vaccines will not be affected.
Adar Poonawalla is the CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest producer of vaccines.
The interview was conducted by Murali Krishnan and has been edited for context and clarity
ment is shying away from its responsibility to ensure an MSP for farm produce and stress that the new laws leave them at the mercy of corporations, which can now enter India's farming sector with no government safeguards in place.
Clauses in the legislation also prevent farmers from taking contract disputes to courts, leaving them with no independent means of redress apart from government-appointed bureaucrats.
These perceived threats to their income terrify India's farmers, who are mostly smallholders: A staggering 68% of them own less than 1 hectare of land. In some states, farming families earn an average of just 20,000 rupees ($271 / €223) annually.
Permission to protest
After months of staging protests in their home states, thousands of farmers marched to the borders of Delhi at the end of November, vowing that they would not go home until the laws were repealed.
For over two months, they have braved bitter cold as the government and farmers' unions hold talks. Eleven rounds of negotiations later, there has been no breakthrough as both sides stand their ground.
The farmers, meanwhile, have turned their tractors and trolleys into temporary homes. They have schools for children, their own newspaper to tackle misinformation, social media handles to amplify their message, hundreds of free kitchens as well as medical facilities.
However, many felt that their voices were still going unheard, prompting their leadership to organize a tractor rally through New Delhi on the same day India celebrates an important national holiday. Routes were marked and permission granted by the local police. And no one had anticipated the violence that hit central Delhi.
The end of a peaceful protest?
On Tuesday, local police fired tear gas and used batons to beat protesting farmers at multiple locations across the nation's capital, while farmers broke through barricades and stormed the historic Red Fort.
They were seen waving three different flags from the fort's ramparts — the Indian tricolor, flags representative of the unions and the "Nishaan Sahib," a sacred religious symbol associated with the Sikh community.
Many local media outlets mistakenly identified the last one as a "Khalistani" flag, referring to a secessionist movement from the 1980s. This prompted an uproar against the farmers. Although some networks issued corrections, the damage was done.
"The farmers' unions are on the back foot now. They are trying to distance themselves from the people who were responsible for the mayhem at the Red Fort," Arati Jerath, a political analyst, told DW.
"As far as the government is concerned, it has got the farmers where it wants them. It has no intention of repealing these laws," he added.
Crisis of leadership
While nearly all farmers' groups condemned the incidents of violence that marred the tractor rally, cracks could be seen forming in their alliance.
Two groups pulled out of the protests after the Republic Day events. Some observers have questioned the unions' decision to conduct the rally on this day, especially given the security implications.
"The moment you gather crowds like this and enter a city, you are bound to lose control. You have no idea what kind of mischief-makers join your ranks and then all it takes is a stone, a slogan — or in this case, a flag," Jerath said.
Attempts at sabotage?
Farm leaders have condemned the role played by India's mainstream media, alleging that they ignored the massive tractor rallies that stayed on course and were carried out in a peaceful manner.
"We have been on the streets for over two months. Can you state even one violent incident during that period?" a farm leader from the All India Kisan Sabha farmers' union told DW.
"Why would we sabotage our cause by indulging in anti-national activities?" he added, deeming it a "conspiracy" to defame a peaceful movement.
They also accused the police of barricading agreed- upon routes to confuse the farmers, most of whom were unfamiliar with the roads of the capital.
To avoid adding to tensions, farmers' unions have canceled their planned February 1 march on the Indian Parliament. Still, the events over the past couple of days have not dampened the spirits of the farmers, who say they will continue their peaceful protests despite alleged attempts by the government to sabotage their movement.
Over 150 farmers have died during the fight against these laws. Their sacrifice shouldn't be in vain, a farmer told DW.