Money9 Edit | Vaccination drive: Strengthen the free window, but let others pay

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Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. When reports were surfacing from different states about the stocks of vaccines depleting fast, the Centre’s announcement to allow use of jabs that have already got the nod in US, UK and EU on an emergency basis must be welcomed. In a sense it also opens up the country’s COVID-19 vaccine market, that had justifiably a restricted number of players.

However, with the entry of more players, it is desirable that the government allows the companies to charge the customers for their products. There cannot be any second thought on the state offering free jabs for the common people in all the hospitals and health centres in its network. At times of a crisis of this magnitude, offering free life saving vaccines perhaps constitutes a basic duty of any government.

But simultaneously, the government must consider a policy of offering the manufacturers and importers charge the customer for the products that` might be distributed through the private sector outlets. Prices might vary but the responsibility of the state if first to offer free vaccines to those who cannot buy them, especially at times when millions of jobs have been lost, wages slashed and numerous small businesses decimated. With a second wave already gripping vast regions of the country, every effort must be made to step up the free window.

However, it makes little sense, economic or equity-wise, to restrict prices for the section of the population who can pay for the jab. However, it is also a duty of the state to ensure that a perception of free-therefore-substandard perception does not spread vis-à-vis the free jab programme. This year, the government has allocated Rs 35,000 crore to the vaccination programme. It should be targeted where it is due.