SubscriberWrites: Why door-to-door vaccination is not wrong in principle, but would be disastrous in practice

The move would lead to possible wastages, fake vaccines, black marketeering and wrong administration of doses, argues Kalpesh Makani

By
Kalpesh Makani
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Representational image | Pexels File photo
Representational image | Pexels

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Anything in India is political; vaccine could not have been any different. From its PHASE 3 Data to Vaccine Doctrine, it is a free for all. Opinion maker mushroomed, state govt (Opp Ruled) waited for the second wave to make havoc, and Courts started guiding the executive.

It was always going to be mammoth task of vaccinating the population (the sheer size of Indian Population). Supply and economics, with hypocrite’s rich countries. It is still is?

Modi Government had fallen into a trap by relaxing the vaccine doctrine by pressure created by opposition and media, and after the 2nd wave graph declined, it did a course correction.

But one demand especially of Maharashtra was to allow Door to Door Vaccination which in principle is not wrong (for Polio we do), but had lots of risk/pitfalls if there was en error. But Modi Govt did not buckle and did not give a blanket approval for door to door vaccination. With Mumbai Society Fake Vaccination Scam now been probed, it is good time to think what may be a possible ramifications of Door to Door Vaccination policy.

  1. Wastages, with supply constraints, wastages would have been higher.
  2. Black Marketing would have been possible (if not rampant), with enterprising staff of our corporation or govt hospitals.
  3. Fake Vaccination- As in case of Mumbai Housing society
  4. Wrong Administration of Vaccine – Eg – Wrong Dose, temperature not maintained, Syringe not sterilized etc.
  5. And the most important, with vaccine passport looks a real possibility, especially foreign travels, the Digital Vaccine Certificate becomes very important & if there is lots of question marks over it authenticity then Indian Certificate will lose its Trust Quotient.

So I think it is good that Door to Door is not allowed.

Also read: Novavax vaccine Covovax could be available in India soon: How it works, differs from Covishield

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