What’s the story behind the scary numbers coming out of India right now?
India has vaccinated just 2 per cent of its population — despite being the world’s largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines.
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This week, we’re tackling this question: What’s the story behind the scary numbers coming out of India right now?
TL;DR: This week India is averaging more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases a day as hospitals grapple with overcrowding and low oxygen supply. What’s making the situation worse might surprise you: India has vaccinated just 2 per cent of its population despite being the world’s largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines. This is in part due to recent export limits (and then backtracking) from the US.
I know I just said I would go beyond the numbers, but let’s recap the key stats coming out in news reports about the COVID-19 situation in India.
Since April 21, India has been seeing more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, bringing the country’s total to over 17.6 million confirmed cases.
As of April 29, the death toll was over 200,000 people, but experts say the real number of deaths likely far exceeds that number, based on interviews with crematories across the country.
While the US has fully vaccinated almost a third of its population with tens of millions more receiving their first dose, only 26 million people in India are fully vaccinated, or 2 per cent of its population.
Going deeper
All these stats mean that hospitals are turning away patients, oxygen supplies in many locations have completely run out, and people are feeling completely hopeless amid the government’s insistence and Twitter-posturing that things are less dire than they are.
The World Health Organization has said the situation resulted from the “perfect storm” but the story in India right now is also inseparable from the larger picture of vaccine inequity across the world.
Though so little of its population has been vaccinated, India is the largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, home to the biotech and pharmaceuticals company responsible for 60 percent of the globe’s entire supply. That company, the Serum Institute of India, had also committed to manufacture 200 million doses for 92 countries as part of COVAX, the international vaccine distribution agreement. (More on that in a previous edition of our newsletter.)
Why the discrepancy? International trade policies from both the US and the EU limited the exports of crucial materials to make those vaccines. In early February, US President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to accomplish this. In late March, the EU followed suit. The US has since backtracked on the vaccine material issue and also promised to provide oxygen-related supplies, PPE and therapeutics for India, but it is unclear how much.
Again, there’s a much bigger picture of inequity here. Recent reporting from Vox explained that “we’re on track for a long period where people in rich countries enjoy the benefits and safety of being fully immunized, while people in poorer countries continue to get sick and die from the coronavirus.” In other words, poorer countries might not get the majority of their population vaccinated until 2023.
Our World in Data has some great infographics on vaccinations by country so you can compare, and this video from Vox is another good explainer:
If variants are allowed to spread in low-income countries without the resources to fight them — as is the case in India right now with variant B.1.617 — they will, sooner or later, pose a risk globally and increase the longevity of COVID-19.
Canada has now pledged to give $10 million and donate PPE and ventilators to help India, but many are worried that the effort is too little, too late.
And as Dr. Saleem Razack and Dr. Ananya Tina Banerjee wrote for the Toronto Star, the impacts of COVID-19 continue to take a toll on racialized communities experiencing scapegoating in Canada.
“We are already hearing reports from South Asians on social media being told to ‘go back to India’ and that ‘this is your fault’ as cases of the B. 1.617 variant emerging in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia led to Canada’s travel ban on India and Pakistan,” they wrote.
“On top of that, a mental health surge is occurring as South Asians witness their loved ones face a life and death situation.”
Finally, the New York Times has a great starter guide as to how you can help people in India right now.
Here’s someone to follow:
Gabrielle Drolet is a freelance journalist and MFA student who reports on a ton of topics, but predominantly health, sex and sexuality (check out this fantastic NYT piece), and popular culture. She also creates great comics, and makes some great jokes on Twitter.
If you’re interested in learning more about being a freelance journalist in Canada — or know someone who is — Gabi and I, alongside Sofia Osborne, will be hosting a panel on May 12, hosted by The Pigeon.
Here’s a story to check out:
You may have realized by now that I’m a sucker for a sprawling, narrative true-crime-esque story. This longform piece out of Victoria’s rising star outlet Capital Daily delves into how American con artist Timothy Durkin somehow swindled a Vancouver Island couple and stole their hotel amid the extreme negligence of authorities. Durkin’s wife, Andrea, told Capital Daily in the process of their reporting, “You can go and print and spew any kind of shit you want in there.” And boy, they did not disappoint.
