-The Hindu In seeking to pursue conflicting objectives, the policy architecture is complex and difficult to implement Contrary to popular perception, public policies are made without full knowledge or facts. More often than not, they embody assumptions arising from experience, an understanding of history, and present conditions. Considering the vast sea of unknowns surrounding COVID-19, it would be understandable to place a greater reliance on historical experience. Instead, India’s Vaccine Policy appears...

-TheWire.in Professor Andrew Pollard tells Karan Thapar why India's 12-16 week Covishield gap makes sense, but refutes claim a single dose AstraZeneca vaccine is likely soon. The Chief Investigator of AstraZeneca and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group has, in this interview, addressed the present controvery over how long the gap between two doses of Covishield should be, clearly endorsing the Centre’s present policy of a 12-16 week gap. Professor Sir Andrew...

-Scroll.in What is needed is better public health communication. Along with an acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, with only 3.3% of its population fully vaccinated, India is also witnessing vaccine hesitancy. Anecdotal evidence suggests people, particularly in the rural and tribal areas, are not coming forward to take the vaccines. While it is imperative to address vaccine hesitancy, superficial attempts that fail to understand its structural causes could lead to more damage. As...

-The Hindu Vaccine gifts of 2-3 million doses may have little impact on India: officials The government on Friday welcomed the U.S. decision to lift restrictions under its Defence Production Act on the export of vaccine ingredients to AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturers worldwide, which would help the Serum Institute of India produce more doses. However, Washington’s announcement of gifting India and dozens of other countries with a first tranche of 25 million doses of...

-The Hindu The court quoted from a National Statistics Office survey of 2018 which said that around four per cent of the rural households and 23% of the urban households possessed a computer Taking a dig at the Centre’s argument that the poor and marginalised can lean on friends to register online for vaccination, the Supreme Court has said even the digitally literate are finding it hard to get vaccine slots on...