July 2, 2021
I wouldn’t make a good diplomat. Yesterday I watched a debate around vaccine passports. I’m not on twitter but apparently twitter had exploded with tweets about this after the EU excluded Covishield the Indian manufactured AstraZeneca vaccine from its vaccine passport. Both are exactly the same chemical formulation. A lot of people were calling this move racist and akin to having a ‘coloniser’ attitude. On the debate several Indians including a doctor, a spokesperson for the ruling party, and a journalist hotly stated this.
The European Medicines Agency explained that it hadn’t received an application from Covidshield for certification. Somebody on the debate argued that this authorisation was for permission to vaccinate in the EU and not for a certification to travel. The Indian Foreign Ministry said they would refuse to accept EU vaccine certificates if the EU didn’t accept India’s certificates. Covishield has been approved by WHO but the other Indian vaccine, Covaxin, has not yet been approved.
The only person who kept cool was an ex-diplomat Neelam Deo. She said such things are procedural and take time. India should make the applications and wait before making reciprocation statements. The BJP spokesperson on the other hand said this was beyond racist. It was a move by Big Pharma to block India from continuing to be the biggest vaccine provider in the world.
Neelam Deo also said that this was a problem for the elite, those who could afford to fly and that we in India should be focusing on the dismal vaccination rate and the looming third wave. She listened calmly to the others and never interrupted. There are issues like false vaccination drives, false negative certificates etc. that also need attention. This calling out of the EU by the Foreign Ministry feels a bit of a diversion to me too.
Yet it is one of those nuanced debates. It is true that vaccine passports will create an elite class of people and further discriminate against lower income countries that are still struggling to vaccinate their populations. It will also exclude the people who do not want to be vaccinated. WHO does not recommend vaccine passports. But it is also true that if a place has been vaccinated or has controlled the spread of covid why should it not have its own certifications and mandate quarantines of people arriving from places where there are huge outbreaks so that their residents can get back to normal. Would love to hear thoughts.
My mind and body are woozy. It is the strong meds I am prescribed but also the sense of plans being constantly interrupted. This has been happening for several months and it is hard to plan or commit to things. Many friends in India speak of their inability to think long term as the covid situation lingers on. Getting the negative PCR text from MOH was a get out of jail card but in light of the bigger picture uncertainty created by covid, I often feel trapped and unmoored.
No comments:
Post a Comment