If 50 people in distant Andamans could contract the Covid19 virus then those in cities are definitely more vulnerable. If, as scientists predict, this virus will take about two years before taking leave then the present regime of containing Covid will need a complete revamp. The bottom-line is that humans have to learn to live with the virus. The only precautions to take are already well-known. Masking in public places, social distancing and strict hygiene protocols! With 3.31 million cases and over 60,000 deaths in India, using the word ‘combating’ to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic may have been wrong in the first place. You can fight a known enemy but not a contagion with unpredictable behaviour. Against the virus, epidemiologists have consistently agreed there is only one long-term defence: herd immunity. The dispute has been over whether this can be achieved without a viable vaccine.
India tried the lockdown in March this year with the hope of slowing down infection and, “flattening the curve.” That did not help much. The economy is now in a tailspin and states are telling the central government they can no longer run their governments under such economic constraints.
With as many as 25 Covid-19 vaccines around the world moving into clinical trials there is also a growing sense of optimism that a success story lurks somewhere in these laboratories and that a vaccine could emerge this year. But that is just a fond hope. However, developing a vaccine is not the only challenge. It must also be produced in sufficient quantities and distributed equitably. The US is already exercising its rights over certain drugs in what can be called “vaccine nationalism.” The US has monopolized stocks of remdesivir, an antiviral drug which can hasten recovery from the disease. The German government has wisely acquired a 23 per cent stake in CureVac, a national company working on a vaccine, possibly in order to forestall a foreign takeover attempt. Covid-19 has, once again, demonstrated the importance of national resilience and the perils of excessive foreign or private ownership of essential national assets. India has to build this self reliance in drugs and vaccines since the country also has some of the best scientists and medical specialists and has so far been exporting them to the western world.
However, cross-border cooperation is also inevitable. The British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, which defied a hostile takeover bid by the US’s Pfizer in 2014, has committed to supplying up to 400 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine to European countries at no profit. Imperial College London has established a social enterprise to provide its vaccine at reduced cost to the UK and low- and middle-income countries. In the era of globalisation, splendid isolation is an illusion.
