The Homemade Vaccine Story

Express News Service

As the world enters the third year of the pandemic, all hopes of a return to normalcy lie in a shambles as case counts again soar to all-time highs in many countries. So far India’s response to handling the first two waves has been, to put it mildly, mixed. So, there is justified apprehension and anxiety in guessing how we will manage the highly contagious new wave of the pandemic. That said, it is altogether fair to acknowledge that important strides have been made in our war against the coronavirus since the dreadful disease entered India through the innocuous patient zero when a batch of medical students studying medicine in Wuhan returned home to Kerala on January 30, 2020.

Going Viral is the story of the war waged by a dedicated community of Indian scientists against the coronavirus pandemic. The story is narrated by renowned cardiologist Dr Balram Bhargava who is also the director of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR is the apex body in the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, and is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.

By virtue of his position, Bhargava was commander of a vast army of scientists working in 27 research institutes located all over the country who tirelessly served to defeat the enemy virus. In his own words, ‘the superheroes of the day are the scientists: women and men who stay smarter than the virus, who change and adapt and innovate so we can all have our shot at a better tomorrow’. At the forefront of the campaign to fight the pandemic is the stellar work done by the scientists of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune, one of the several institutes functioning under the ICMR.

This book narrates in detail the herculean challenges faced by Indian scientists who defied the odds and despite personal risks, successfully delivered one scientific breakthrough after another to come up with solutions to the ravaging outbreak not just in India but all across the globe. For instance, in March 2020 just weeks after the first case is detected, scientists at ICMR-NIV, Pune, isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus making India the fifth country in the world to achieve this feat. In April, the ICMR-NIV Pune started the collaboration with Bharat Biotech, for the development of a vaccine for Covid-19.

By June 2020, Covaxin, the first coronavirus vaccine created in India, was approved for clinical trials and Phases 1-3 completed by November. These trials showed the vaccine produced antibodies to the coronavirus without causing serious side effects and with the enhanced attribute of neutralising the variant strain from the UK. The roll-out of the vaccine on January 17, 2021, by the government, marked a unique saga of success of this amazing publicprivate partnership that eventually earned the sobriquet of India as a vaccine superpower, evolving from the status of vaccine supplier to a pioneer—a unique achievement against all odds!

There are many other such instances of pioneering success notched up to the credit of our scientists, such as the development of the Rapid Antigen Test, making India the first country to do so globally, ramping up testing capacities in the country from just one lab to thousands in the shortest time, reducing through innovative genius the prohibitive cost of a test. Going Viral steers clear of questions on the origin of the virus, whether it is man-made or not—nor does it venture to address issues of whether it is harbinger of the global reset that is part of the so-called new world order and readers looking to fathom the depths of these rabbit holes will be disappointed!

Also, Dr Bhargava heaps lavish, saccharine and somewhat undeserved, praise on the government! A more objective assessment of the impact of the government’s failures in controlling the spread of the virus, its faulty policies of premature and poorly planned lockdowns that led to untold hardship on migrant workers and also contributed to the spread of the virus to the rural hinterland, government endorsement and encouragement of super spreader events like the Kumbh Mela and large festival gatherings, elections in states and consequent political rallies where senior political personalities presented themselves as poor role models without face masks are just some instances of culpable negligence that undoubtedly contributed to and magnified manifold the devastating intensity with which the second wave brought the country on its knees in early 2021.

The subsequent abysmal failure and unforgivable culpability of state and federal governments to adequately cope with the fallout of this resurgence, the heartwrenching misery that tore India asunder during the deadly second wave surely deserved more objective commentary from the author. His failure to do so diminishes an otherwise excellent narrative!

Going Viral
By: Dr Balram Bhargava
Publisher: Rupa & Co
Pages: 250
Price: Rs 295