Book review: ‘India’s Vaccine Growth Story’ celebrates nation’s vaccine supremacy

“Analyses of viral DNA in ancient human remains have established that smallpox ravaged human beings for at least 3,000 years. The measles virus jumped to humans in the first millennium BC. We have been fighting hepatitis B and plague since the Bronze Age. And polio has been depicted to exist in Egyptian paintings from the period 1403 to 1365 BC.”

Contagions such as these and others have claimed lives in millions since the beginning of time. A conservative estimate puts the victims of smallpox at over 300 million in the 20th century alone. The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed 50 million people, and polio paralysed 3,50,000 children in 1988 alone.

This information in the first few pages of Sajjan Singh Yadav’s book, India’s Vaccine Growth Story: From Cowpox to Vaccine Maitri, paints a very real and terrifying picture of human civilisation’s relation with its microscopic archnemesis, viral diseases. As an afterthought, the same information also makes one realise that we have survived all of that and more in the last few thousand years.

Yadav’s book is a testimony to that ongoing fight between humans and diseases, especially in an Indian context. The book details India’s vaccine growth story, its struggles and its overachieving successes on a global scale in nine chapters across over 250 pages.

The book captures the 225 years’ journey of vaccines starting from 1796 when English physician Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine for smallpox, the first vaccine in modern medicine, till the advanced vaccines developed to fight COVID-19.

Apart from stories of the evolution of vaccines in the first two chapters and their diverse economic and social benefits in later chapters, the book presents many facets of vaccines including how it has been used by countries to increase their soft power and deepen their ties with other countries.

A large part of the book is dedicated to vaccine leadership, innovation, nationalism and diplomacy in an Indian perspective. It generally covers all the major milestones achieved by India in becoming a ‘vaccine superpower’ in the last two and a half years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“India’s role in being the global epicentre for low-cost vaccine manufacturing was critical in producing accessible and affordable vaccines to fight COVID-19,” Yadav writes. The government also supported indigenous vaccine manufacturers financially.

COVID-19: One crore adolescents in 15-18 yrs group fully vaccinated, says Mansukh Mandaviya

The government provided 100 per cent advance payment to domestic vaccine manufacturers for procurement orders placed with them, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told the author in one of his interactions.

India’s efforts to manufacture vaccines at home with global collaborations bore fruit on 4 January, 2021 when it became the fifth country to produce vaccines. Not to be taken lightly that the other four countries – the UK, the US, Russia and China – were both financially and technically more advanced than India at the time.

By the end of the year 2021, India had a bouquet of seven COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use, including Covovax, Corbevax, ZyCoV-D, and Sputnik V.

Also read: India achieves 'extraordinary feat', 90% of adult population completely vaccinated against COVID-19: Mansukh Mandaviya

When it came to the colossal and supremely ambitious task of running the world’s largest vaccination drive, India benefited from its past experiences of eradicating smallpox and polio from the country. The nation was supported by a trained workforce of 2.5 million healthcare workers and 50,000 cold chain technicians to handle the unprecedented scale of the drive.

“A state-level task force was made responsible for planning and mapping vaccination sessions, strengthening cold chain infrastructure, identifying manpower, training and managing bio-medical waste, developing a media plan to allay fears and misinformation, attracting people to vaccination centres and monitoring their progress.”

Also read: How PM Narendra Modi’s calibrated approach has helped turn around Indian economy

Similar task forces were also set at district, block and municipal levels across the country.

Again, India benefited from its experience of running the world’s largest democratic process of elections when more than one million polling stations are set up and five million workers are deployed to reach more than 900 million voters.

“Managers of COVID-19 vaccination programme drew heavily on the expertise, experience and infrastructure for conducting elections. Voter rolls were used to identify eligible people and decide on the location of vaccination centres,” Yadav writes.

As India started the vaccination drive, while more vaccines were being developed, it did not forget its place in the world and the ancient doctrine of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – the world is one family.

The country has a strong record of health diplomacy as it churns out 20 per cent of generic medicine and 62 per cent of vaccines produced globally. About 67 per cent of the medicines manufactured in India are exported.

India lent a helping hand to countries in need under the Centre’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative. There are hardly any countries that did not benefit from India’s vaccine maitri initiative.

Apart from India’s immediate neighbours and other less well-off countries, rich countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom technically lined up for Indian vaccines. As per the book, by the end of 2021, India had supplied 117.31 million vaccines to 96 countries, including 14.77 million bilateral free vaccines, 33.21 million vaccines sold to COVAX and 69.34 million vaccines supplied on bilateral commercial basis.

Must read: How Modi’s India pursues Nehruvian foreign policy with a difference

The book proves to be a treasure trove for any data junkie as Yadav has collated information from sources national and international in a manner both readable and easily comprehensible.

A researcher and a bureaucrat with 28 years of diverse experience, Yadav has put meticulous thought and method into writing and formatting this book in an interesting narrative style that is rare in non-fiction.

Currently appointed as additional secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Yadav has also served the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Published by Sage, ‘India’s Vaccine Growth Story’ is available on online and offline store for Rs 595.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.