From the U.S. to the Norway, vociferous debates over the efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines have beset pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc and governments the world over are battling anti-vaccine sentiment. Yet, experts say India never registered significant resistance to inoculations until now. The stakes are particularly high because the South Asian country is racing to inoculate 1.3 billion people across villages and crowded slums while grappling with the world’s second highest number of infections.
“There are many unanswered questions because of the total opaqueness and lack of accountability,” said Dinesh Thakur, a former pharmaceuticalexecutive known for exposing fraud at the Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. “One thing is abundantly clear: They have successfully now created a significant anti-vaccine movement in India.”