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Medicine

India's Second Wave Hits the Whole World Through Vaccine Export Curbs (axios.com) 70

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Facing a brutal new wave of coronavirus cases, India on Thursday made anyone over 45 eligible for vaccination. But the scramble to vaccinate as many people as possible has also meant sharply curtailing exports. From a report: The hopes of vaccinating the world have largely fallen on the shoulders of India, a vaccine manufacturing powerhouse and home to the world's largest producer, the Serum Institute. Until recently, India was exporting most of the doses it was producing -- a mix of donations to neighbors and other friendly nations, sales to countries like Saudi Arabia and the U.K., and contributions to the global COVAX initiative. Indian-made vaccines have gone to 82 countries. Then, after a long lull, cases began to surge. They are now at their highest point since mid-October and are continuing to climb precipitously. Vaccine exports, which had been ramping up, suddenly fell sharply. Rather than supplying the world, the Serum Institute appears to have redirected nearly its entire supply to the homefront.
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India's Second Wave Hits the Whole World Through Vaccine Export Curbs More

India's Second Wave Hits the Whole World Through Vaccine Export Curbs

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  • Export vaccines only to countries with worse situation (new cases per 1M of population) than India...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )
      Is the EU exporting to India?

      • No, because India hasn't ordered any EU vaccine. India is one of the countries that are completely exempt from the EU rules on vaccine exports, though, so if they order, they will receive no matter the situation.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Sounds good in theory. But not so much in practice when you consider the bureaucracy needed to define "worse situations". Are you going to rely on WHO infection rates? When they have demonstrated their fealty to the CCP? Are you going to undermine the control of local politicians and their ability to define needy population groups as political expedience dictates?

      On this last point, it might be a good idea. As our governor is hesitant to open up vaccination availability, stating that "There might be a pers

      • Sounds good in theory. But not so much in practice when you consider the bureaucracy needed to define "worse situations". Are you going to rely on WHO infection rates? When they have demonstrated their fealty to the CCP? Are you going to undermine the control of local politicians and their ability to define needy population groups as political expedience dictates?

        I wonder if it might just be possible for countries to like, you know - Give some consideration to manufacturing their own vaccines, vaccines that they can use as they wish.

        Of course, if vaccines are manufactured in your country, you will try to protect your citizens if there is a major outbreak that your country can address by using them internally. That's not even nationalism - it is self preservation.

        Will we learn lessons from this? Probably not. We'll bitch and moan about how evil India is, while

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          Actually, we (USA) are not exporting vaccines. We are keeping all of them for ourselves.
          You can debate the wisdom/morality/legality of that.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by PPH ( 736903 )

          I wonder if it might just be possible for countries to like, you know - Give some consideration to manufacturing their own vaccines

          Many countries don't have the pharmaceutical infrastructure to manufacture their own. They must depend on the generosity of others.

          you will try to protect your citizens if there is a major outbreak

          Taking a holistic view of such protection, vaccinations are just one part. The USA decided to rely heavily on vaccinations, knowing that lock downs and contact tracing were not likely going to work well here. The EU took the (somewhat misguided) approach that their populations were more amenable to control by authorities. And ordering everyone to stay home and shut down their co

          • I wonder if it might just be possible for countries to like, you know - Give some consideration to manufacturing their own vaccines

            Many countries don't have the pharmaceutical infrastructure to manufacture their own. They must depend on the generosity of others.

            And some times it gets weird South Africa doesn't want to sign a document indemnifying Pfizer. https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone... [msn.com]

            you will try to protect your citizens if there is a major outbreak

            Taking a holistic view of such protection, vaccinations are just one part. The USA decided to rely heavily on vaccinations, knowing that lock downs and contact tracing were not likely going to work well here. The EU took the (somewhat misguided) approach that their populations were more amenable to control by authorities. And ordering everyone to stay home and shut down their co

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by fustakrakich ( 1673220 )

        Everybody is looking at this from the wrong angle. The only reason there is any shortage at all is for the lack of patent waivers so other countries can *legally* produce their own [msf.org].

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by tomhath ( 637240 )
          You want it for free? What will you do next time when no company is willing to create a vaccine for free?

      • Sir, you're quite correct about "your governor" having his head up his rear end.

        You're going to end up with a much worse overall outcome if you slow down vaccination to enforce "perfect justice" in who gets a shot in what order, than if you rapidly vaccinate with less regard for getting the ordering perfect.

        Remember, every shot in every arm protects everyone, even if they did not get a shot. That means, even if someone jumps a line in front of me, I *still* benefit because that line-jumper is less likely t

        • You might benefit in that way, but you're also at greater risk since the line jumper is probably now only about 3 feet in front of you.

  • good for them (Score:3)

    by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Friday April 02, 2021 @11:08AM (#61228446)
    The vaccine does just as much good in an Indian arm as any other arm. The real tragedy (I think) is not to have production ramped up everywhere that can make it by this point.

    • Re:good for them (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Friday April 02, 2021 @11:20AM (#61228510)

      The drug companies who control production haven't permitted anyone else to make the vaccines. There are many countries who would be capable of making vaccines but they are prohibited.
      I think this is immoral capitalist greed but that is just my opinion.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by tomhath ( 637240 )
        It isn't that they aren't permitted. It's that they don't want to share the development costs by paying royalties. Be thankful that some companies stepped up created the vaccines this time.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          Most of the development cost was paid for by the US taxpayers.
          Pharma only "stepped up" when they were paid by the US government.

          • That is only remotely true for the Moderna vaccine.

            • IIRC the J&J vaccine was also subsidized by the American taxpayer, in that the government committed to buying 250 million doses whether it worked or not. A guaranteed market and profit margin for doing R&D makes financing that R&D a given - as much as just writing a check would. (Pfizer declined to participate in that program and instead the government's contract was conditioned on test results showing it was working.)

              • 100 million doses initially, but at that time the vaccine formulation has already been developed and Janssen-Cilag already started the first trials.

                • Right, the point is we had publically said we would buy it as soon as it was ready for trials, regardless of the outcome. I thought the payment was for 250 million, because Biden doubled it to 500 million. Maybe there was a 100 million to 250 million jump after it was proven effective?

          • Or EU taxpayers for Pfizer and AstraZenica vaccines. And that is not counting all the charities paying for all of the vaccines all over the world.

      • They probably also need some way to be shielded from liability and reputational damage if someone makes a sub-standard batch. It might be better if the West created an "own brand" label for vaccine and handed out manufacturing licenses for that. It seems not significantly harder than funding Covax or whatever the program is and it builds capacity and relationships for future responses.

      • They don't have to
        https://www.wto.org/english/tr... [wto.org]

        WTO allows compulsory licensing.

  • We could easily have enough vaccine (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Friday April 02, 2021 @11:39AM (#61228604) Journal

    The shortage is caused by bullshit patents [msf.org]. We shouldn't allow this.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      There is an issue that the major drug dealers are protecting future profits. The have to limit manufacturing to insure that are not undercut by future supply.

      But there are also lessons learned from the past. When the small pox vaccine went into wide manufacture, some places cut QA steps and bad product was released. Already the JJ vaccine has failed QA tests.

      It is also important to note that the nation states are not queuing up to promote manufacturing in other countries. Local manufacturing is the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        Yes, here in New Zealand we already have advanced industries making similar products for animal live stock and I am left wonder if could we repurpose that infrastructure to make the vaccine locally under license?

      • The have to limit manufacturing to insure that are not undercut by future supply.

        Yeah, what's a few dead people gonna matter?

        Very disappointing to see so many people shilling for profit, and not even their own

  • Here in New Zealand we normally have zero community cases but will have around 3 cases a day in a managed quarantine facilities from people arriving from offshore. Of those cases India feature significantly was the source of Corona virus cases, probably about half of them with the USA being the second biggest source. As any risk of spread into the community comes mainly from these sources then getting things under control there is almost as import to our communities as local vaccinations.

    The USA has mi
  • Are they a clue to how to stop the virus? Or is it just chance? It seems very odd that in many countries, including the USA, there have been long periods of time when the virus does not spread fast, followed by the fast surges you would expect. In the USA it was thought that summer (higher humidity, UV rays, higher temperatures) was the reason, but now we are exiting winter and facing a new surge due to variants. Does the virus cycle through dormant and spreading phases somehow? Maybe it is just down t

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