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Oxfam has appealed to Union government to address inequalities in supply to ensure Covid-19 vaccines reach the vulnerable and ramp up manufacturing to address shortages.
Ina communication to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has called for a more targeted bottom-up approach to ensure vaccination nearer to peoples’ habitations, especially in high coronavirus prevalence areas.
The civil society called to ensure that the vaccine is purchased at right cost and distributed free of charge. It needs to ensure fair allocation which prioritizes at-risk groups. The large scale procurement by the Central government is at regulated prices which do not financially cripple states or pitch them against each other in the quest of scarce lifesaving vaccines. The government needs to immediately enhance financial outlays to public health include compulsory licensing of vaccines and ramp up public sector vaccine manufacturing capacity to better prepared for the potential next wave of the pandemic.
Amitabh Behar, chief executive officer, Oxfam India said, “The support for India’s global ask for a patent waiver at World Trade Organisation (WTO) is growing. India’s government needs to show leadership domestically, by lifting patents to its own vaccine and follow its own National Vaccine Policy by ensuring equitable access to everyone to the vaccine but prioritizing the vulnerable and excluded.”
Overall rates of vaccination are stalling, and shortages are expected to continue until at least July-end. The joint policy brief and analysis by Oxfam India and Forum for Medical Ethics Society (FMES) highlights the several flaws in India’s current Covid vaccination strategy, including failure to adequately explore compulsory licensing of the vaccine. The current policy of differential pricing for the Centre and states and pushing the states to the market for its vaccines, would force India’s poorer and more populous states to pay relatively more. Furthermore, vaccine allocations to states are also not in proportion of the emerging demand from those under 45 or the quantum of Covid cases.
Sunita Sheel, Secretary General, Forum for Medical Ethics Society said, “Given the current global order and interconnected world, lack of access to vaccines implies threat to global health security agenda. This can be averted only if government puts people first.
Both SII and Bharat Biotech vaccine in private hospital will cost an Indian family with 3 adults Rs. 3,600 for a full course of the Covishield vaccine or Rs. 7,200 for Covaxin. For the poorest 20% of households, this burden will be 43% (Covishield) and 86% (Covaxin) of their monthly income, respectively. Indians are paying world’s highest vaccine prices despite providing significant funding and in-kind support for development of the vaccine and pre-clinical and clinical trials. Successful vaccination drives are rooted in detailed district plans and social mobilization strategies to reach vulnerable communities; these are missing in this drive. The near complete reliance on on-line appointments for vaccination without providing walk-in facilities tends to exclude those who lack internet access, the elderly living alone, those with disability and populations such as homeless and pavement dwellers and those in institutions. Only 15% rural households have access to the Internet and only 24% of India’s population has smartphones.
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