E-Paper
Lockdown not necessary, prevents herd immunity: Cyrus Poonawalla
If there is no lockdown there we will be bound to see the disease in the beginning, but later people will get herd immunity. Why do I prefer lockdown over herd immunity? It’s because the number of deaths will be low, he said
Responding to whether lockdown was necessary, Poonawalla said that he believes that the lockdown was not necessary as it would stop herd immunity from developing. He also criticised the Modi government for banning export of vaccines, as many countries ready to pay are not able to get it. He also praised the Modi government for speeding up the process to get approval for the vaccine licensing.
Poonawallla also said that it is not possible that 75% of the country would be vaccinated by year end. He said, “Politicians are lying. We are yet to increase our production to 10 crore vaccines. No single company in the world can produce 10 crore vaccines in a month. We have promised about 110-120 crore doses annually because we invested in it prior. So you can do the math now. If other manufacturers produce 1-2 crores every month then the production would increase accordingly.”
He said, “I don’t agree that there should be a lockdown because if there is a lockdown there would be no herd immunity. If there is no lockdown there we will be bound to see the disease in the beginning, but later people will get herd immunity. Why do I prefer lockdown over herd immunity? It’s because the number of deaths will be low. If many people are dying then lockdown could be essential. About 50-60% of the people who have died have lost their lives due to negligence, like not being able to reach the hospital on time, no money for treatment, vaccine hesitancy and treatment hesitancy, reaching in the hospital late when the symptoms have worsened. If there is immediate treatment, then the number of deaths would be much lower.”
He further added, “Until the virus is eliminated from across the world, we might need to continue to take the vaccines after regular intervals. As of now people fear a third wave, however, in my opinion the third wave would not be so severe because of the herd immunity, and also vaccinated people who would have some immunity. We do not have so much experience to ignore the danger of this disease as of now. We are seeing one wave after another. For example in America, despite the high rate of vaccination, the situation is dire. I am not saying this because I want to make money by selling vaccines, but people should really get the vaccine or else they might regret it.
He also said that the family had to bear huge cuts in profit as the vaccine costs less than what a cup of tea would cost in a five star restaurant. He said, “A measles vaccine which we give to the Government of India costs ₹10 a dose, while UNICEF and other countries are giving ₹50 a dose. These are the sacrifices that the Poonawalla family is making. Earlier, we used to produce a total of 15 crore vaccines every month. Now we are producing 15 crore doses of this one product monthly so that everyone gets the vaccine. We have prioritised Covid vaccine production over all other vaccines.”
Speaking about the threats that the family was said to have received earlier, he said that it was blown out of proportion. “There was no threat as such and no reason for people to exaggerate that my son had to leave the country because of the threats. It was his annual summer vacation. It was completely blown out of proportion.”
Praising the Modi government he said, “He has instructed the drug controller officials to ensure speedy licensing and approvals and not to sit on the files for a month or two.. Earlier, when we had to launch a pneumonia vaccine but we could not get approvals for over two years. They gave reasons like no challan, no document or would reply after a month. However, this time the process is much smoother. Although this applies only for the drug controller department I cannot speak for other government departments.”
He said, “My son would not want me to say this but the Modi government should not ban us from exporting. Exports must be opened because the other 170 countries who took our vaccines all these years and now not able to get it. The Bill Gates foundation has given us ₹5,000 crore, but we are not yet able to give them the vaccine. We even offered to return the money, but they said they are ready to wait and get the vaccine when exports would open up.”
“Centre is not approving extra doses for Pune”
In view of a shortage of Covishield vaccines for Pune, Poonawalla said, “We had written to the Modi government to release more vaccines for Pune since there are more cases in Pune and also our company is in Pune, However, they have not even replied to our letter. They said that they would do what they want.”
