The Government of India relied on the vaccination programme in order to stanch the disease. And that was not to be. India has developed two vaccines and both, particularly COVISHIELD has been very effective and lab studies show that even the mutants are effectively neutralized by this vaccine. And COVAXIN is the other. As part of its humanitarian effort India exported 20 million doses all over the world and USA Germany and UK have been far less generous. Vaccine Maitreyi as the programme was called was effective and just then disaster struck.
Joe Biden and his right arm Kamala Harris struck a decisive blow. As a historian I cannot endorse conspiracy theories or Deep State compulsion behind the Woke Politics in USA. The Indian journalists like Guha, Dutt Gupta and others friendly with the Congress Party started systematically derailing the Government strategy by raising imaginary efficiency questions about the COVISHIELD and started rooting for the Pfizer drug. The Pfizer unlike Astra Zenneca is effective and far less susceptible to blood clotting. But costing around $500 (US) this vaccine would have been a financial disaster. However the Opposition and the Press started lobbying very strongly and stridently for this vaccine. The tests have shown that COVISHIELD is just as efficacious and the Pfizer. Joe Biden in a body blow struck at the very heart of India's strategy.
Using the Defense Production Act first invoked by President Trump, Joe Biden and his right arm Harris stopped the export of the critical component for the manufacture of the drug and prevented NOVAX from exporting the component. This delay created a window that allowed the mutant virus infect the population that had not been vaccinated and at least a few thousand deaths are the result of this policy. USA has enough vials of vaccine hoarded to such an extent that its entire population can be vaccinated a few hundred times and yet Biden and Harris decided to embargo the critical component. If Biden and Harris talk of Human Rights, International Leadership, Humanitarian Intervention etc, it is certain that such woke garbage will be received with sniggering contempt. In fact we are still not sure if Biden is behind this policy or his handlers who are nameless faceless people hiding behind the façade of an election in which Biden and Harris were "declared" elected. Anyway the Embargo and the relentless Propaganda unleashed by a section of the Press against what was an effective strategy until the end of March 2021.
Is recovery in sight? The numbers are staggering. The Government has been able to reconfigure the supply chain as both France and Russia have stepped in. Oxygen which was in demand is being produced in newly fabricated plants and the recovery rate is increasing steadily. This disaster is entirely the result of American callousness and we have a new phenomenon: Death by changes or disruption in the supply chain. India will not forget this hard earned lesson.
