News of the US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna declining to sell coronavirus vaccines to Delhi and Punjab has thrown a curveball in the Centre’s decentralisation of India’s vaccination programme.
“We have had talks with Pfizer and Moderna. They said they won’t give us vaccine and will directly talk to the Centre,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters.
“I appeal to the Central Government with folded hands to talk to these firms, import vaccines and distribute them among states,” he added.
Kejriwal’s remarks came after a senior Punjab official said Moderna had refused to send vaccines directly to the state government stating that it only deals with the Centre.
Punjab’s nodal officer for vaccination Vikas Garg said according to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s directions, all vaccine manufacturers were approached for direct purchase of COVID vaccines including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. A reply was received only from Moderna wherein the company refused to deal with the state government, he said. According to Moderna’s policy, it deals with the Government of India and not with any state government or private parties, the Punjab government said in a statement.
While India has had some good news with daily COVID cases remaining under the 3-lakh mark for the past eight days, the bad news is that vaccination has been paused for the 18-44 age group in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Karnataka and halted entirely in Punjab.
As experts have repeatedly stressed, vaccination the population is the only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic. With two major manufacturers of vaccines bluntly refusing to deal with states, it is imperative that the Centre at the very least rethink its vaccine procurement strategy.
As this piece in the Orissapost noted, “In the case of vaccines, the missteps have been very evident and clear. India has always had a precedence for the Centre sourcing and providing vaccines for citizens. This has been the case for polio, smallpox and all other vaccines that are administered on a regular and continious basis.”
The piece noted that this is probably the first time the process has been altered and a new method is being tried and that too during the biggest pandemic the world has seen in recent times.
“The new method is putting responsibility of procurement and distribution of vaccines squarely in the hands of the state governments. The major issue is that state governments do not have the resources or clout to outbid other countries and each other to snag vaccine deals from major producers,” the piece noted.
The solution? Decentralising distribution rather than procurement.
As this op-ed in the Indian Express noted, “The Centre must anchor the purchases — negotiate factory gate prices, but subsidise the consumer — and distribute among states. The key is to decentralise distribution, not procurement.”
The piece further noted that clamour for decentralisation revolved around providing states greater flexibility in the rollout of the vaccination drive. “It was not to create 28 separate state entities negotiating with a private manufacturer for a public good. This needlessly complicates the process,” the piece added.
The piece further stated that a repeat of the oxygen crisis, where state governments block vaccine trucks from leaving their territories, must be avoided.
“The vaccine basket has all of two vaccines, the new ones are weeks, if not months away. The anxiety of several state governments isn’t misplaced,” the piece noted.
With inputs from PTI