Amid an acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the country since the beginning of vaccination, executive director of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) Suresh Jadhav on Friday alleged that the government began inoculating people from multiple age groups without taking into account the available stock of vaccines and the WHO guidelines.
The Pune-based company’s executive director said on Friday that the government started vaccinating people of different age groups without assessing WHO guidelines and the stock of vaccines they hold.
In a virtual seminar organized by a Health Advocacy Platform, Jadhav said that the country should follow the WHO directives and accordingly decide the priority of vaccination.
Initially, 300 million people were to be given the vaccine, which required 60 crore doses, he said. But even before we reached our target, the government first opened the doors of the vaccination program to everyone above the age of 45 years and then over the age of 18 years.
The government took this step despite knowing very well that such a number of vaccines are not available. Jadhav said, this is our biggest lesson learned. We should keep in mind the availability of the product and then use it judiciously.
