May 11, 2021
'Ambivalent stand on invoking Patents Act flexibilities weakens India's stand globally'
The Centre’s liberalised vaccine policy is self-defeating and goes against the idea of vaccinating maximum number of people in the fastest possible time, say public health advocacy voices, unhappy with the government’s affidavit defending its vaccine programme at the Supreme Court.
The segmentation that has been created in procurement – between Centre, State and private hospitals – is slowing down the entire vaccination process and denying people their right to health, said KM Gopakumar of the Third World Network.
The Centre should be the single procurement point and should supply States and private hospitals. But in the present liberalised programme of the Centre, there are multiple actors and they are competing with each other, he says, adding that those without the ability to compete on price will be left behind.