Covid-19 vaccine: India’s key role in ending the pandemic Editorial 9th Oct'20 HindustanTimes

India has had success in tackling polio:

India has already had some major successes in tackling infectious diseases, which many said would be impossible to wipe out.
The chief such example is that of polio. It has now been nine years since India saw its last case of polio.
Polio elimination was made possible through a combination of:

Government leadership
Training millions of health workers to identify and isolate cases
Continuous innovation in the delivery systems – including new ways to record child vaccination and electronic registries
A safe and effective vaccine

India's major role in providing medicines in the fight against HIV/AIDS

At the turn of the 21st century, the new infections of HIV/AIDS were on the decline in high-income countries, primarily because of the rollout of highly effective anti-retrovirals (ARVs).
However, in sub-Saharan Africa, the virus continued to ravage the population.
More than two thirds of all infections in the world were in that region.

Many of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa were young people or children who could not afford the high costs of treatment.
In 2000, less than one per cent of people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries had access to treatment.

India's generic medicines made treatment affordable and saved millions of lives:

In 2000, activists, experts and leaders from Indian generic-producing pharmaceutical groups came together and agreed to produce lifesaving ARVs at a fraction of the cost (less than a dollar a day for the triple therapy).
These low cost medicines were distributed across low- and middle-income countries.
Those efforts paid off with tens of millions of lives being saved as treatment rates increased exponentially.

It showed how vaccines/medicines could be made affordable:

India's role in fight against HIV/AIDS also provided a blueprint for how new health technologies, including diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines can be effectively scaled up and priced so that they’re accessible to those that need them most.

India has done a relatively good job of keeping Covid under control:

Covid-19 has hit India hard in recent months, but there are promising signs that the epidemiological curve is starting to flatten.
Key to controlling the outbreak has been the ability to scale up testing, enabling health officials to treat those who are sick and trace their contacts to break the chains of transmission.

India now has the chance to lead the fight against Covid:

Covid-19 has so far taken a million lives.
India once again has the opportunity to take the lead in tackling a pandemic by acting in solidarity and utilising its world-leading pharma industries for the benefit of all.

India has declared its willingness to do so:

At the recent United Nations General Assembly virtual session, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to the global fight against Covid-19.
He assured the global community that, as the world's largest vaccine producing country, India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis.
Furthermore, Indian manufacturers recently pledged to make hundreds of millions of Covid-19 doses available for low- and middle-income nations in 2021 as part of an expanded distribution effort that again demonstrated Indian’s global leadership.

World needs Covid vaccine to successfully end it:

An effective vaccine is the major focus of the world’s current response to Covid-19.
Laboratories across the world are working around the clock to design and deliver an effective inoculation in record time.
Some vaccines are already in phase three trials, which is the final stage of testing whether a vaccine is safe and effective for widespread rollout.

India has been on the forefront of bringing the world together on Covid vaccines

COVAX Facility was set up by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It has the biggest and most diverse Covid-19 vaccine portfolio in the world.
It is designed to ensure that as new vaccines are discovered, they are shared effectively around the world.
This ensures that those who are most at risk – including health care workers and the vulnerable – are protected first.
To do this, WHO has designed an allocation framework that means all countries involved in COVAX will receive a supply of its approved safe and effective vaccines.

Ensuring a framework where all countries involved in COVAX will receive a supply is not just the morally right choice but also the smart economic choice.
This is because, by sharing a limited supply of vaccines equitably, countries can vaccinate high-risk populations.
Rejecting vaccine nationalism and coordinating across borders will ultimately save many more lives, help to stabilise health systems across the world and ensure a truly global economic recovery.

Along with now 167 countries, India has joined the COVAX Facility.
COVAX has outlined an ambitious goal to scale up vaccine production so that two billion doses are available by the end of 2021.
India will have a key role in achieving that wide-scale roll out of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Long considered the pharmacy capital of the world, India already supplies large amounts of medicines and vaccines to global health programmes such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis and Gavi.

Conclusion:

India was at the forefront of the AIDS crisis and continues to be a major force in driving research and development on Covid-19, vaccine preventable diseases like rotavirus and neglected tropical disease.
By joining the COVAX Facility, India has once again sent out a powerful message to countries across the world that India is committed to working across borders to fight disease and improve health for all.
Our nation is home to some of the brightest minds in health, medicine, and logistics, and it is right that we should share that expertise with others to ensure that global community's success in the fight agaisnt Covid-19.

Importance:

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IAS Jugaad