Letters to the editor dated April 20, 2021
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Covid vaccine
This refers to ‘Inoculating India’ (April 20). At last the government has taken the right step in allowing those aged 18 and above to get vaccinated, and giving much needed flexibility to vaccine manufacturers in terms of pricing as well as distribution.
Further, the Finance Ministry providing financial assistance to Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech to speed up vaccine production is welocome. Now, all efforts should be on ensuring maximum number of people get vaccinated so that we develop herd immunity as early as possible.
Bal Govind
Maintain supplies
The huge gap in the supply of Covid vaccine is alarming. As suggested by the former Prime Minister, governments worldwide should declare this calamity as national emergency and address the shortcomings on account of patent-related issues thwarting the free flow of the vaccine to needy countries, by issuing compulsory licences to the entities which can augment the supplies of generic drugs for this purpose. On the financing front, extending tax concessions to CSR activities and crowd funding would be a pragmatic step.