oppn parties US Ban On Exporting Key Vaccine Ingredients: Not Right In The Times Of The Pandemic

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  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
Australia thrassh India in the 4th Test, dim their chances of making the WTC finals, Rohit, Virat and Rahul fail once again
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US Ban On Exporting Key Vaccine Ingredients: Not Right In The Times Of The Pandemic

By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-04-24 06:16:50

There is no disputing the fact that the US is the worst affected country in the Covid-19 pandemic. As on April 22, it had reported 32,735,704 cases with 585,075 deaths due to coronavirus. These are disturbing figures. But the Biden administration has brought things under control by rapidly vaccinating the US population. Till now, 35 percent of US citizens have been fully vaccinated and about 52 percent have received the first dose. These are excellent figures and will help the country win the war against the virus. Additionally, the US has ample stock of vaccines and more supplies are in the pipeline. At this rate, it will be able to fully vaccinate its entire population in a couple of months and will still be left with massive stocks. Is it ethical for the US to hold on to these doses or to restrict export of vital vaccine making ingredients so urgently required in countries like India on the plea of "Americans first"?

The US has activated the Defence Production Act (generally used in wartime to prevent the country from suffering shortages) to ban the export of key ingredients used in making Covid vaccines. The US company Novamax had contracted to supply these ingredients to Serum Institute of India, which produces the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield. With India now in the grip of a severe second wave of infections, it vaccination drive runs the risk of getting derailed due to these US restrictions. But the US is in no mood to relent.

Although taking care of its own citizens must be the priority of the government of any country at all times, a spirit of constructive cooperation is expected at times when the entire humanity is threatened. India, despite its limitations, had contributed handsomely to the CoVax programme to make vaccines available to countries around the world, before putting restrictions to vaccinate its own people. But India’s case is obviously different. It has to vaccinate at least 85 crore people in the next six to eight months to achieve herd immunity. For this it needs 170 crore doses, at the rate of 28 crore or 21.25 crore doses per month. While India has taken steps to ramp up its production capacity, without key ingredients, it will be difficult to make the vaccines. Hence, the US must consider the situation and make an exception in India’s case. After all, the US needs just 64 crore doses to fully vaccinate its entire population (which is not possible because as of now, the vaccine has not been tried on children below 16 years of age)and much less to achieve herd immunity.