3 ms·

India has stopped exports before in response to domestic need. Onions in recent years[1], and also COVID vaccines in response to its devastating 2021 second wav

India has stopped exports before in response to domestic need. Onions in recent years[1], and also COVID vaccines in response to its devastating 2021 second wave, after it spent 2020 doing rounds of “vaccine diplomacy” where it assured countries it could help with their COVID vaccine needs. India is usually the world’s largest vaccine exporter, but its 2021 2nd wave led to this policy being put on hold as once again, exports were blocked[2]. Actions like these are not new or surprising because India’s economy is quite price sensitive and the government in response likes to micro-manage in the face of rising prices, but it does mean you’ve to take these sound bites to foreign leaders with a grain of salt. Very often these are actually intended for people at home to push the message of “see how much good we’re doing in the world?” None of this is intended to be disparaging or specific to India, a lot of this applies to other countries as well. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-india-onion-idUSKBN2660XV https://www.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-india-onion-idUSK... [2] https://www.thecambridgeglobalaffair.co.uk/collaborators/what-happened-to-indias-vaccine-diplomacy https://www.thecambridgeglobalaffair.co.uk/collaborators/wha...

Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
Another factor of the Indian national government's failure with COVID vaccines was simply not sending any significant amounts of money to the companies that were either manufacturing them under contract like the Serum Institute of India (SII, largest in the world by doses, 1.5 billion/year in 2020). After that second wave, as far as I know the first really big wave hit, the CEO of the SII had to flee the country because of threatening demands he was getting from various powerful figures in various part of the country. Although the SII also suffered from supply chain issues like everyone else, such as a world wide shortage of 2,000 L sterile plastic bags in which to culture cells and probably bacteria like the E. Coli used in the first step of making the mRNA vaccines.

Throwawayaerlei 4y ago

Another factor of the Indian national government's failure with COVID vaccines was simply not sending any significant amounts of money to the companies that were either manufacturing them under contract like the Serum Institute of India (SII, largest in the world by doses, 1.5 billion/year in 2020). After that second wave, as far as I know the first really big wave hit, the CEO of the SII had to flee the country because of threatening demands he was getting from various powerful figures in various part of the country. Although the SII also suffered from supply chain issues like everyone else, such as a world wide shortage of 2,000 L sterile plastic bags in which to culture cells and probably bacteria like the E. Coli used in the first step of making the mRNA vaccines.