At a time when India is inoculating more than 5 million people each day, several media houses are hellbent on showcasing India’s massive vaccination drive in a poor light. On Saturday (October 9), The Times of India attempted to downplay India’s fight against the Coronavirus pandemic through an article titled, ‘25% of adults may not get fully vaccinated by the year.’
The article, authored by Rema Nagarajan, claimed that about 26 crores out of India’s total adult population (94 crores) cannot be ‘fully vaccinated’ this year. While relying on the assumption that Bharat Biotech cannot scale the production of India’s indigenous vaccine ‘Covaxin’, Nagarajan asserted that its share in total vaccination will remain around 11.4%. The article, therefore, argued that a majority of people will be administered doses of Covishield (manufactured by Serum Institute of India) which requires a gap of 12-16 weeks between the two doses.
Rema Nagarajan in her article in The Times of India stated that only 12 weeks have remained for the year 2021 to conclude. As such, even if someone was to take the first dose of Covishield, he/she could get the 2nd dose only after a period of 12-16 weeks i.e. in the next year. The author further pointed out that about 28% of the total adult population i.e. about 26 crore people have not received even the first dose. The Times of India reported that the number of such people is highest in Jharkhand (43.1%) and 0% in Himachal Pradesh.
While TOI says that 25% of adults may not get fully vaccinated by the year, conversely, it can be argued that 75% of India’s adult population can be ‘fully vaccinated’ this year, using the same statistics and arguments. As per the data available on the CoWIN app, India has administered a whopping 94 crore vaccine doses. About 26.51 crore adult Indians have been fully vaccinated in the ongoing drive.
The Times of India article argued that 28% (26 crore) of people have not yet received a single dose. Assuming that they do not get vaccinated, the Indian government still has the potential to fully vaccinate the remaining 44 crore, people, out of the total 94 crore population.
Fully vaccinating 75% of eligible people in the country in less than a year will not be a small feat, as the TOI article tries to suggest. In fact, it will still be one of the most successful vaccination campaigns.
On September 17 last month, it was reported that the government has plans to administer 100 crore doses by mid-October this year. If the government achieves the feat, it is indeed possible to fully vaccinate 75% of adult Indians by the year-end. Again, the number can be greater if more unvaccinated adult Indians choose Covaxin over Covishield since the former requires a gap of 4-6 weeks between two doses. In any case, India is going to fully vaccinate 70% of the country’s adults by the end of 2021. It will be a historic feat and a success story for other nations to emulate.
At a time, when doctors and health professionals are putting in all-out efforts to ensure everyone is fully vaccinated, The Times of India deliberately chose a pessimistic headline. For a country with an estimated 140 crore population, a feat of 70-75% fully vaccinated people isn’t a trivial one. But, Rema Nagarajan somehow managed to sour India’s achievement by giving a dull and gloomy colour. Instead of seeing the glass as 75% full, they preferred to see it as 25% empty.
Propaganda by media works in subtle ways and sometimes fail to catch the eye of a naive reader. The article by The Times of India happens to be one of such several anti-India propaganda tools of journalism.
