Not so long ago, a reputed international media-house had predicted gloomily that it could take over a decade for India to vaccinate its 1.4 billion population against Covid-19. Yet, just one year, four months since we launched one of the world’s largest vaccination campaigns, we are just a hairbreadth away from claiming universal vaccination of the entire population over the age of 15, with 97 per cent of that population having taken their first jab and over 86 per cent vaccinated with double-doses.

The resounding success of this drive has been a myth-breaker on multiple-fronts in the public-health space and beyond.

It proved that India’s vaccine-makers are not just contract-manufacturers but also vaccine-developers. It proved that public-private partnership in India’s vaccine research can delivery under challenging deadlines.

It proved that India’s vaccine logistics service-delivery in public-sector can match, or even surpass the global best. It proved that health tech-solutions such Co-Win, India can offer a few lessons to the world.

Much of this was possible because the political will was directly invested and involved in a public-health matter, and scientists, bureaucrats, technocrats, doctors, paramedics, health workers and industry focused on clear goals,.

By January 3, 2021, within less than a year of the virus hitting the Indian shores, two vaccines Covaxin, and Covishield had received Emergency Use Authorisation and many others were in the making. This was possible partly because the Prime Minister had set up expert committees to oversee the development of a Covid-vaccine way back in February-March 2020.

The success of Covaxin co-developed by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) shows that PPPs do work in public-health space.

The regulatory set-up including the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) innovated an accelerated management process to approve vaccines.

This meant data reviews, which usually occurred serially, and sequentially started happening parallelly, and years of in-between time could be crunched to bring the vaccine in a year.

The country also tapped into its decades of universal immunization programme to adapt and upgrade its vaccine logistics delivery system for Covid vaccination programme. How India monitored the cold-chain ecosystem which carries the quality-checked vaccine doses — from the manufacturer’s facility to the vaccination centre, will become stuff of supply chain case-study for management students. Drones were used to deliver vaccines in intractable places. Cycles, boats, camels were all used to transport vaccines.

All of this was possible because special committees such as NEGVAC had deliberated around each detail and demand-supply assessments were being made real-time in close coordination with the state-governments.

Building Co-Win and using the tech solution to digitally drive the process slashed information asymmetry and democratized the process ensuring that rich and poor stood in the same queue for their turn for vaccines.

The social mobilisation campaign was led by the Prime Minister himself (who mobilised the community through a series of public addresses and engaged with vaccine-manufacturers and policymakers directly) and health workers at the grassroots.

There is no grander proof of success for the drive than the massive and near universal participation of people in vaccination. But the success of vaccination drive will also remain a testament to the resilience of the Indian national character which rises to the occasion. It’s now time to consolidate our gains and build on our Covid-19 lessons for other public health priorities.

The writer is Chairman of Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation

comment COMMENT NOW