India is one of the largest manufacturers of covid-19 Vaccination. India tried its best to help other nations and sent them vaccine exports. India particularly gave support to the poorer countries. But, soon it was met with a massive and threatening second-wave.
As a result of India’s fight against covid-19, India stopped the Vaccination exports temporarily for securing it to its citizens. Now the cases have reduced and India is back on track.
It has vaccinated at least 40% of its population with the first dose. This has again called for pressure on India to restart the export of Vaccination to other countries.
US President Joe Biden held an online summit on covid-19 on 22nd September at a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. His address certainly made it clear that he aspires to take the leadership of global collaboration for controlling the pandemic.
America became a subject of criticism for not making adequate efforts for the poor nations. To get rid of that criticism, President Biden is expected to announce the supply of 500 million vaccine doses to the less developed nations around the globe.
This action will allow it to stand above the other big vaccine manufacturing countries like India and pressurize them to resume exports.
It was clear when the objectives of the summit were announced. The objective was to ensure participation of more effort and higher ambition on 4 themes.
The first theme is vaccinating the world by improving the access and availability of vaccines equally for all. Another theme was to call the world to align with the targets, monitor and support each other to fulfill their commitments.
The national interests and foreign commitments are clashing for India at the moment-
The World Health organization together with the Biden Administration desires that Vaccine manufacturing like India should allow vaccine exports. At the UNGA session of 17 September, WHO stressed that vaccines are a significant tool to fight and end the pandemic.
It is the most crucial tool to save lives around the world. It reminded nations to abide by their commitment to vaccine sharing, distribution and export immediately. It also asked vaccine manufacturers to emphasize the supply of doses to COVAX country.
The fourth theme proposed by America was about an intrusive process to influence the national decisions on the export of vaccines.
It also includes that the vaccine manufacturers should fulfill their prior commitments of supplying vaccine doses to other countries. The Serum Institute of India has also entered into a global contract to supply vaccines under the GAVI alliance.
However, according to international laws, foreign commitments shall be subject to national laws. The national interests should be kept at priority.
It is also expected that Prime Minister Modi shall be traveling to the USA to attend the covid-19 summit. If in any case, he doesn’t travel to the USA then India will manage the summit through another senior-level coordination.
The CEO of GAVI also addressed questions over India by saying that India plays a main role in the global vaccination campaign.
He also said that being the largest vaccine manufacturers it should resume its Vaccination exports. But, he overlooked that a special representative from the African summit himself acknowledged the massive and devastating second wave that hit India in the summer months.
The world witnessed India’s devastation. Still, the USA and WHO along with other nations are trying to put gentle pressure on India to resume exports.
India was a leading country for vaccine exports before the second wave of covid-19 in India. But, the second wave left no option for India apart from securing adequate doses for itself before resuming exports. It has been the only alternative and a big lesson learned in India.
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