Beyond India's Vaccine Diplomacy For Global Good

The outbreak of COVID-19 had and continues to cause a significant degree of hardship across the world.

- Dr. Sripathi Narayanan

The most glaring impact of this pandemic can be gauged from the 3.5-per cent negative economic global GDP growth, as projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), along with a 2.4-million global deathcount, as per the WHO database. Apart from such discomforting statistics, COVID-19 has also dominated international affairs through 2020, continuing to the present. Starting with the US, nations joined hands to charge China – where the pandemic originated – with causing the pandemic, and also of concealing critical information. That phase soon gave way to locating testing kits in their millions, fi nding a vaccine – and sharing the same with the rest of the world.

The quest for global political infl uence was first played out in form of the supply of protectivegear, sanitizer and a host of medical equipment, including ventilators, and available medication. With the world stabilizing with that phase and pace, real politics began playing out in the quest for a vaccine – and domination in the field. This resulted in a motivated PR campaign that went beyond the scientifi c efficacy of individual vaccines being developed in diff erent nations, to political brinkmanship accompanied by active lobbying for one and discrediting disinformation against the other(s).

India’s Pharma Diplomacy