Why Indian Dream Of Inoculation By July 2021 Is Slowing Down?

It is going to take India longer than expected to get its inoculation drive become a success. Here is why....

Photo courtesy: NDTV

It is getting strange that India has more vaccine vials that takers right now.  The situation is becoming something like in Hungary and Sweden where people are refusing to take the Chinese vaccine candidate.

There is fear and uncertainty lurking in the minds of the common man. Too much (mis)information has also done its bit. Multiple vaccine candidates are already creating confusion.  For India, as a country of the largest population after China, it is getting to be a huge challenge to convince people to get themselves vaccinated. India is a strange democracy. A herd mentality works here.

People can’t think for themselves; they believe half baked information quickly. They don’t read and inform themselves well, because what is being fed to them is (mis) information anyway. They discus and as Chinese whispers, the real, the truth is lost in translation.

As of Monday, official number confirmed that only about 56 percent of Indian citizens were eligible to get the shot. They have indeed stepped forward but reluctantly. General consensus has covered medical fraternity too. The fear is the same- vaccine has not covered the Phase 3 trial. How safe is it to take it? We are surviving fine without it anyway!

Strangely, in other parts of Europe and US, there is scarcity of the vaccine. If we are not able to get the rate up and going, we might have to part with the vaccine to other nations that have started to approach the Centre to meet their short supply.

India had plans to inoculate 300 million people or about a quarter of the population by July 2021. Indeed, we are looking at a setback to the largest inoculation drive in the world.  However, sources confirm India will not fall short to meet its own demand. In fact the Centre has promised it can provide 500million shots per month for export, and countries such as the U.K., Belgium and Saudi Arabia have sought to buy them.

It is going to take another persuasive speech by the charismatic leader of the nation to convince people to trust the homegrown vaccine and take the plunge.  As a nation, we have survived rather well under this leadership, which a lot of people says in dictatorial. But then nothing less would let India not fall to pieces, because as a democracy, we are still immature and love to be a (mis) informed agitated lot.