Poonawalla strips Chunawala

Modi exposed on vaccine joomla

The claim that the anti-COVID vaccination programme would be over by the end of December is a political bluff, according to Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of Poonawalla Group, which includes Serum Institute of India (SII).

Dr Poonawalla, who was felicitated by the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth Pune, yesterday said that the claim made by politicians that the vaccination plan would be completed by the end of the year is a mere bluff. Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Poonawalla made the statement. Modi had claimed that the vaccination drive would be over by end of December, with all citizens vaccinated.

Poonawalla was speaking to mediapersons, after his felicitation. He said his statement is made on the basis of the production capacity of vaccines in the country. On SII’s capacity, he said that currently it is producing 10 crore vaccines per month. This has been made possible after making huge investments to increase the production capacity, he stated, adding that SII used to produce 15 crore other vaccines per month, but those have been put on hold to ensure the production of their anti-COVID vaccine Covishield.

He was critical of the Modi Government for increasing the period between the first and second dose of vaccine to three months. According to Poonawalla, that was done in the light of the shortage of vaccines in the country. “The gap between the first and second dose of the vaccine should not be more than two months or less than one month. I took the second dose within a month, that is also wrong,” Poonawalla said.

He also flayed the decision to allow a cocktail of two vaccines, which meant taking one dose of one vaccine and the second of another. “Who will take the responsibility if something goes wrong, by mixing the vaccines,” he questioned.

After all the critical comments about the Modi Government, Poonawalla complimented the government for taking quick decisions to allow the production of the vaccines, this was “not possible during the licence raj”, he stated.

However, he expressed his dissatisfaction over the ban on the export of anti-COVID vaccines. “We have been regularly supplying vaccines to around 150 to 170 countries for years and now those countries are asking us why we cannot provide them the Covishield, which they badly need. We have to take care of the interests of other countries too,” he said.