China No.1 in Covid-19 vaccinations?

Those who praise China as No.! In vaccination should understand that the world has no means of verifying China's own figure for how many doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered within the country. In terms of vaccine doses administered domestically, China had reached 2.2 billion on 6 October - compared with more than 923.5 million in India, 571.4 million administered in the EU, and 398.7 million in the US, according to BBC World in Data.

 Okay! Now remember the virus also was manufactured in China, and by mistake or design spread all over the world. When you make a deadly poison to kill others, generally you make the anti-dote simultaneously in order to protect yourself from unintended poisoning! China therefore could be also credited with manufacturing vaccines early on, on a large scale considering its huge population.

The data analytics company, Airfinity, has tracked global production and estimates that China has exported commercially 1.1 billion doses (as of 8 October) of its vaccines to 123 countries (as either bulk substances or finished doses). Of these, around 110 million have been purchased by the Covax global vaccine-sharing scheme to provide vaccines to lower-income countries.

In addition, according to UN data, China has so far delivered around 37 million doses as donations (as of 1 October) out of a total pledged of around 52 million.

Now those who belittle India’s achievement as they praise China see everything in terms of their political views. India is not Narendra Modi or RSS/BJP! India’s achievements are partly the achievements of the people of India and the system of administration. When team India wins a cricket match we feel India has won and it loses, we generally feel the team failed India. A possible reason for many countries including India lagging behind in vaccination is a lack of proper infrastructure, staffing constraints, and other issues which include vaccine hesitancy even in the First World countries, holding up the rollout of vaccinations.

India has done phenomenally well in vaccine manufacturing capability and the world over Indian vaccines have better acceptability than that of China, for some reason! India had exported about 66.4 million doses of its locally-made vaccines as of the end of May when exports were suspended.

Lastly, the tendency of normal human beings is to support their families, their dear ones, their state or country in all situations in which pride is a factor - “My brass is Gold”. In contemporary India, we do exactly the opposite! It is said that Civilizations die when they cease to believe in themselves! Indian intellectuals and Indian politicians who pretend away their Indian-ness, they pretend away their pride in themselves and wait for that eventual death.....