The anti-vax movement gets its steam from millions of people who reject a scientific antidote to COVID-19, choosing to put themselves on the wrong side of the eulogy. As the pandemic brought many nations to their knees, the timely development of effective vaccines was nothing short of a miracle. However, the vaccine miracle was only available to a privileged few who belong to the developed world, blessed with resources to pre-order and purchase millions of doses for the sake of public health.
Most nations in the developing world couldn’t even dream of accessing a vaccine for years after it was available to the United States. They still can’t, even for the most vulnerable—healthcare workers on the frontline.
My home country of India is part of this developing world. Indians were able to access the Hepatitis B vaccine—available to Americans in 1982—30 years later, in 2002. The polio vaccine, which the United States began to use in 1955, became available to Indians in 1978. That’s right: 22 years later. Even when those vaccines did become accessible India, lacked the funds needed to buy them in large quantities and run a mega-vaccine campaign to jab its population in short order.
Enter COVID-19. India was on a strong growth trajectory when the pandemic emerged, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to fully lock down his country. Months later, India simply couldn’t afford to keep its businesses shut any longer. Knowing a credible vaccine was the only way out of the pandemic, Modi risk-funded multiple vaccine candidates in early 2020. With time, it became clear that Pfizer, Moderna, and other foreign manufacturers would be unable to provide nearly enough doses to India. The only way that over 1.3 billion Indians could receive the vaccine in time was for Indian vaccine manufacturers to be empowered with funds and regulatory approvals, on top of access to the raw materials and technology required to ramp up production.
Modi did just that. In a matter of months, India produced two home-grown vaccines: The Serum Institute of India’s Covishield (in partnership with AstraZeneca) and Covaxin, fully developed in India.
Fast forward to 2022, and more than 75 percent Indian adults are fully vaccinated. Not only that, but over 90 percent of Indian adults have received their first dose of the vaccine, putting the country well ahead of the United States, despite America’s head start and other built-in advantages as a developed nation.
I bring up the Indian case study not just out of love for my home country, but also as a blueprint for the U.S. government. It is absolute lunacy that so many Americans are choosing to ignore the science, making it incumbent upon President Joe Biden and other public officials to make vaccination the first, second, and third priority. Vaccine hesitancy is a ticking bomb, and the federal government can do more to stop the clock. Public education can go further, and President Biden himself should do more to explain the science.
There is no anti-vax “movement” in India. The Indian government went with a firm-handed response to vaccine resistance from the start and continually relied on public information campaigns to make people aware of the vaccines’ credibility. The prime minister’s picture on the vaccine certificate added a layer of legitimacy, quashing rumors arising in rural parts of the country. As one of India’s most recognizable figures, Modi has maintained a channel of direct communication through national addresses, promoting pro-vaccine policies and explaining the scientific logic behind them.
Modi doesn’t just talk; he explains, using empirical evidence to provide updates on the COVID-19 situation in real-time. And it’s working. India is past the peak of the Omicron wave, with hospitalizations and deaths on the decline. A high vaccine uptake is painting a much rosier picture in 2022 than last year when the Delta wave battered a less-vaccinated population.
America’s government should take note. More can be done to promote vaccination and get the world back to “normal.” So do it. Educate people, using the facts.
Don’t play politics. Don’t peer pressure others. Just speak the truth, back it up, and trust the science.
