India needs to move vaccines to warp speed | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
July 22, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025
India needs to move vaccines to warp speed

Panorama

Shruti Rajagopalan, Bloomberg
06 April, 2021, 01:50 pm
Last modified: 06 April, 2021, 01:50 pm

Related News

  • Milestone plane crash: Bangladesh’s global friends mourn, offer support
  • A dissection of rising hostility against Bengali migrants across India
  • In India's deportation drive, Muslim men recount being tossed into the sea
  • Tesla enters India with $70,000 Model Y as Musk yields to steep tariffs
  • India urges Bangladesh to halt demolition of Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home, offers support for restoration

India needs to move vaccines to warp speed

The country should use the market to get more shots into more arms faster

Shruti Rajagopalan, Bloomberg
06 April, 2021, 01:50 pm
Last modified: 06 April, 2021, 01:50 pm
India has only approved two vaccines thus far. Photo: Bloomberg
India has only approved two vaccines thus far. Photo: Bloomberg

A frightening second wave of Covid-19 has begun to sweep over the world's second-biggest nation. Case numbers and deaths are spiking in India, threatening to overwhelm hospital systems; the financial capital Mumbai has re-imposed stringent lockdown rules. The government, which had earned global goodwill by exporting Indian-made vaccines to over 80 countries, is now holding back supplies for domestic use.

With less than 70 million doses delivered thus far, though, and a population of more than 1.3 billion, India faces a staggering challenge. It doesn't just need more vaccines — it needs to find a way to get them into arms faster.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is aware of the urgency and the limited policy options in its toolkit. It's opened up vaccinations to anyone over the age of 45 and has mandated that all public and private vaccination centres stay open every day. As one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers, the country is lucky not to face the supply constraints many other countries do.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Still, production of the two vaccines approved by the government — Covaxin, from Bharat Biotech International Ltd., and Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt. — cannot meet both Indian and global needs quickly enough. The first thing the government should do, therefore, is accelerate approval of some of the vaccines in use in other countries, including those from Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and especially the logistically easier, single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. If those companies can't expand production quickly enough, the government should pursue licensing agreements to make their vaccines in India.

Next, the government needs to rethink how it allocates supplies. The foreign vaccines may be too expensive for the state to purchase and distribute freely. That's why the government should allow vaccine-makers — including AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech — to sell doses on the private market.

Allowing these companies to profit will increase supplies and help scale Indian manufacturing efforts for exports and the future. Meanwhile, the government can continue to offer doses that it has purchased for free or, in private vaccination centers, at subsidized prices (currently under $4 per shot).

Millions of Indians can afford to pay for faster access to vaccines, maybe hundreds of millions since private companies are keen to vaccinate their employees and charitable institutions have pledged large amounts to support the effort. The government would be foolish not to leverage this private-sector capacity, not least because getting affluent young Indians vaccinated quickly would help kickstart the economy.

Shruti Rajagopalan, Senior Research Fellow at George Mason University. Sketch/TBS
Shruti Rajagopalan, Senior Research Fellow at George Mason University. Sketch/TBS

Finally, India should adopt the "First Doses First" strategy outlined by economist Alex Tabarrok. The idea is to delay the second dose of two-shot regimens, under the assumption that it's better to raise two Indians from 0% to 76% percent protection than to save a second dose to raise one Indian from 76% to 82% protection. Indeed, the AstraZeneca vaccine is actually more effective if the second shot is delivered 12 weeks after the first, rather than six weeks.

Recent findings confirm that vaccinating twice as many people also helps slow down mutations, contrary to fears that lower immunity would increase the number of variants. Author and surgeon Atul Gawande recently recommended delaying second doses in the US as well. Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization has strongly favoured delaying second shots to 16 weeks. And the UK has been an early leader, offering second doses at 12 weeks rather than four weeks. India can easily do the same.

As it rethinks its vaccination strategy, the government shouldn't neglect other safety measures, namely the need to encourage social distancing and wearing masks. Indians experienced the most severe lockdown in the world last year. They are fatigued and, with local fatality rates at much lower levels than other countries, a little complacent. The euphoria surrounding vaccines may also have engendered what's known as the Peltzman Effect, where people take greater risks when they perceive a situation to be safer than originally expected.

Personal precautions are at an all-time low. Concerning pictures of tens of thousands of Indians attending cricket matches without masks, joining political rallies for the upcoming elections or participating in holidays such as Holi have spread just as cases are rising. While masks are admittedly uncomfortable in the hot Indian summer, they should be mandatory at such events.

The alternative is worse. The government has few other tools to prevent a calamity. Another nationwide lockdown would devastate the economy. And it might not even work: Evidence suggests that in most states, last year's brutal shutdown was either unnecessary or unsuccessful at curbing transmission. Until more vaccines arrive on the market, Indians cannot afford to forget just how dangerous Covid-19 remains.  


Disclaimer: This opinion first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement

Analysis / Features / Top News

India / Vaccine / warp / speed

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA holds meeting with leaders of four major political parties after day-long protests for edu adviser's resignation
  • Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    Secretariat protest: 75 injured in police-protester clash over edu adviser's resignation for delaying HSC rescheduling
  • Bangladesh win nail-biter to clinch series win 
    Bangladesh win nail-biter to clinch series win 

MOST VIEWED

  • Training aircraft crashes at the Diabari campus of Milestone College on 21 July 2025. Photo: Courtesy
    BAF jet crash at Milestone school: At least 20 including children, pilot dead; 171 hospitalised
  • Flight Lieutenant Md Towkir Islam. Photo: Collected
    Pilot tried to avoid disaster by steering crashing jet away from populated area: ISPR
  • An idle luxury: Built at a cost of Tk450 crore, this rest house near Parki Beach in Anwara upazila has stood unused for six months. Perched on the southern bank of the Karnaphuli, the facility now awaits a private lease as the Bridge Division seeks to put it to use. Photo: Md Minhaz Uddin
    Karnaphuli Tunnel’s service area holds tourism promises, but tall order ahead
  • Bangladesh declares one-day state mourning following plane crash on school campus
    Bangladesh declares one-day state mourning following plane crash on school campus
  • 91-day treasury bills rate falls 1.13 percentage points to 10.45% in a week
    91-day treasury bills rate falls 1.13 percentage points to 10.45% in a week
  • Air Force F-7 BJI training aircraft crashes at Milestone College in Uttara
    Air Force F-7 BJI training aircraft crashes at Milestone College in Uttara

Related News

  • Milestone plane crash: Bangladesh’s global friends mourn, offer support
  • A dissection of rising hostility against Bengali migrants across India
  • In India's deportation drive, Muslim men recount being tossed into the sea
  • Tesla enters India with $70,000 Model Y as Musk yields to steep tariffs
  • India urges Bangladesh to halt demolition of Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home, offers support for restoration

Features

Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

Aggrieved nation left with questions as citizens rally to help at burn institute

7h | Panorama
Photo: TBS

Mourning turns into outrage as Milestone students seek truth and justice

1h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Uttara, Jatrabari, Savar and more: The killing fields that ran red with July martyrs’ blood

1d | Panorama
Despite all the adversities, girls from the hill districts are consistently pushing the boundaries to earn repute and make the nation proud. Photos: TBS

Ghagra: Where dreams rise from dust for Bangladesh women's football

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

Now | TBS Today
Two advisors and press secretary were blocked at Milestone for 8 hours

Two advisors and press secretary were blocked at Milestone for 8 hours

14m | TBS Today
Chief advisor's meeting with 4 parties; what was discussed?

Chief advisor's meeting with 4 parties; what was discussed?

39m | TBS Today
What can be done to avoid a plane crash?

What can be done to avoid a plane crash?

1h | Podcast
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net