Covaxin, India’s First Indigenous COVID-19 Vaccine is going to mark the return of India’s status as a Vishwaguru on the global stage. The vaccine’s approval for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to launch India as the saviour of the world from coronavirus.
Countries to recognise Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin
After getting recognition from the World Health organisation for an emergency use license (EUL) for inoculating people with Covaxin, Bharat Biotech is gearing up to export the vaccine in large quantities to the world.
India’s external affairs ministry has ramped up its efforts to nudge the countries for mutual recognition of the vaccine certificates. The move will smoothen foreign travels for Indians as currently, various countries do not recognise India’s vaccination certificates in-toto. While SII manufactured Covishield vaccine certificate has still a fair amount of recognition, Covaxin developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited is still fighting to come up in ranks with Covishield.
WHO, G20 and PM Modi’s diplomacy
Since, WHO has granted an Emergency use license to Covaxin, it will become easier for Indian diplomats and interlocutors to secure a uniform vaccine certificate regime for both Covaxin and Covishield. Currently, only Australia, Mauritius, Oman, the Philippines, Nepal, Mexico, Iran, Sri Lanka, Greece, Estonia and Zimbabwe are the ones who recognise the Covaxin certificate as legitimate. The US will recognise Covaxin from the 8th of November. Seven other countries namely Hungary, Serbia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Mauritius and Mongolia have agreed to recognise the vaccine certificate.
Read more; The world is waiting for Covaxin as an alternative to mRNA vaccines. WHO’s delay is suspicious
Prime minister Narendra Modi had recently nudged the G20 leaders to strive towards mutual recognition of covid-19 vaccines. Briefing the media about India’s efforts, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla on 29th October had said- “Fact of the matter is that the point the PM tried to make (on vaccine certification) has been received. Most countries are quite happy with the idea of facilitating smoother international travel…and feel that we need to collectively work on it,”.
Currently, more than 20 countries recognise India’s vaccine certificates and allow Indian citizens to stay in the country without the mandatory quarantine requirement.
Prime minister Modi’s efforts get a big vindication
The mutual vaccine recognition regime comes off as a big vindication of Prime minister Modi’s efforts in making the world free from China induced covid virus. As reported by the TFI, recently, when almost all of the world leaders were masked in the G20 meeting, Mr Modi’s unmasked face made headlines. Mr Modi’s unmasked face was is representative of the fact that more than 75 per cent of Indians are already vaccinated with their first dose, while about 32 per cent are fully vaccinated individuals.
Read more: Maskless Modi among Masked global leaders and the victory of India’s vaccination program
India made WHO to bend the knee to approve vaccines
Covaxin’s journey for approval from WHO has not been an easy one. Despite submitting multiple data of the clinical trial done by Bharat Biotech, the WHO continued to put requests under bureaucratic review procedure. The same WHO which approved the Chinese vaccine within 10 days did not budge when it came to granting EUA to Covaxin. However, when reports emerged in the media that India had delayed the supply of its COVAX program, only then did WHO seem to act in hurry. As Prime minister Modi garnered praise from G20 leaders for vaccinating more than 1 billion Indians in a short time, WHO was left with no option other than approving Covaxin.
Read more: As WHO denies approval to Covaxin, India suspends vaccine donation to WHO programme
India emerging to be a global leader in the fight against the Pandemic
During China induced covid pandemic, India has emerged as a responsible power of the world. At a time when ultra-developed countries like the USA were locking in medicines for their own use, India supplied medicines to more than 150 countries. Brazilian president Rio Bolsanaro had even compared India to Bhagwan Hanuman who provided Sanjeevani booti to Brazilians.
Read more: ‘We request you for the Sanjeevani,’ Brazil invokes Bhagwan Hanuman and Ramayana in request for HCQ
Similarly, when left-wing media portals were spreading rumours about India not having enough vaccines, India opened its gates for other countries to come and take our vaccines. In October 2021 alone, India sent 10 crore doses each to Nepal, Myanmar, Iran and Bangladesh under the Vaccine Maitri Initiative. As Covaxin’s exports increase to more and more countries, India’s status as soft power is bound to increase many-fold in post covid world, and the world will see a Vishwaguru which can take everyone along without threatening anyone like China.