Braving a Viral Storm | Foreward
FOREWORD
I write this foreword to the book covering the monumental success story of India’s Covid-19 vaccination on the day India has achieved the target of administering 2 billion vaccine doses. This milestone has been accomplished in 18 months after India launched its vaccination programme.
Two billion vaccine doses—doesn’t it sound surreal? When we were in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, India’s capacity to run a nationwide vaccination programme targeted at adults was questioned, lampooned and prejudged to be a failure.
There were suggestions that India may take 10 years to vaccinate its entire population. It was not just the Indian government but also the Indians who were subjected to veiled ridicule, assuming that they will not
understand the importance of vaccination. And yet, here we are in a country where more than 90 per cent of the adults are fully vaccinated and more than 95 per cent of the adults have taken at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the time of writing.
How did India prove its critics wrong? The answer is very simple and, in fact, can be explained in one word—trust. India trusted the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who in his eight-year-long tenure has taken the country from strength to strength, while earning the love, affection, respect and, most importantly, unflinching trust of 1.4 billion Indians.
The leadership demonstrated by the PM in steering India through the course of the Covid-19 pandemic has been exemplary. His vision for India to invest time, effort and financial resources
early on in potential vaccine candidates paid off. It was this vision and conviction he put in India’s scientific and research talent which ensured that India became aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) when
it came to ensuring vaccine availability, access and affordability in the country.
This Triple A rating—availability, access and affordability—is a matter of pride and immense satisfaction for India. We have seen countries around the world struggle and fight for their requirement of Covid-19 vaccines. Several global leaders have had to plead with private pharmaceutical companies to give
them vaccines, often in lieu of accepting ignominious terms and
conditions.
India, on the other hand, has not just fought the virus successfully, it has done so with its head held high. This is a story of India’s courage, conviction and collective efforts, and it stands out in the world, despite the inherent complexity of our country.
India has also initiated several measures to ensure that our scientific heft and capability are deployed to counter any future health crises in a coordinated and effective manner. The government has worked on institutionalizing the learning from this pandemic in terms of research and development, skills and training initiatives, investments in cutting-edge medical facilities and creating the right social safety nets for the most vulnerable sections of society.
This story needed to be told, and I am glad that the authors of this book, Aashish Chandorkar and Suraj Sudhir, have taken up this task of national importance. Our vibrant democracy sometimes tends to be hypercritical about our smallest failures and does not fully recognize and celebrate even the biggest of our achievements. This book plugs this important gap—it displays the best of India and implores the readers to honour India’s many successes.
The authors have written a factually enlightening account of India’s strong pushback against the Covid-19 pandemic, seeking to inform the readers of the true challenges faced by the country. The authors have spent precious time in speaking to various experts in this field in India and around the world to provide balanced and comprehensive perspectives to India’s vaccination story. It is a matter of great joy and relief that India’s vaccination success, led by the untiring efforts of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, is being told in real time, while the memories of the pandemic as well as our fight back against it are fresh in
the public memory.
Dr Mansukh Mandaviya
Minister of Health and Family Welfare,
and Chemical and Fertilizers, Government of India
New Delhi
17 July 2022