India’s COVID Devastation

By Kaylah Bresee and Grace Wu

Global Themes

Discussion Questions + Global Themes

Discussion Question #1

Discussion Question #2

If you were the leader of a high-income country, would you prioritize your own population’s vaccination?

If you were the Prime Minister, would you still allow religious celebrations to happen during the pandemic?

Illustrate the dilemma between a nation-state’s immediate self-interest and a longer term “enlightened” self interest that considers the welfare of other nations and of future generations.

Show how perception is more important than reality in politics

Table of Contents

• Why are there criticism directed towards the U.S. regarding the crisis and what is President Biden’s response?
• Why is there a growing hostility between China and U.S.?

• What is the government going to support it’s citizens?

The Governments Response

International Criticism and Hostility

• What is it?

• Background & Current Info

COVID Wave in India

Vaccine Nationalism

Definitions

Vaccine Nationalism

Geopolitics

Holi

Variants

Vaccine Diplomacy

The idea that a country should only be responsible for vaccinating its own population

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Politics and international relations as influenced by geographical factors

A Hindu spring festival celebrated in February or March in honor of Krishna.

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A form or version of something that differs in some respect from other forms of the same thing or from a standard.

The idea that distributing its own vaccines to countries struggling with COVID is mainly for exploitation purposes, such as exerting greater economic control

COVID Wave in India

Background Info

• In the beginning of February in 2021, India’s COVID cases were trending down
• Health workers were surprised by India’s “good fortune”
• India was said to be reporting the same amount of cases as New York
• India has about 50 times the population that New York has
• At the time epidemiologists saw only one explanation for this; wide spread immunity

Current Info

• In April, things took a turn for the worst
• There was a surge in cases
• Oxygen tanks and hospitals beds became scarce
• People turned to black market to get medicine to help loved ones
• Images of bodies were flying around social media causing panic
• Death toll passed 200,000 on April 27
• There is a major oxygen shortage
• Normally India uses about 15% of the liquid oxygen made
• Now they are using about 90%
• Some Indian states do not have oxygen plants so they have to wait for the oxygen tanks to be transported
• The process of making oxygen tanks is extremely time consuming
• The tanks take about 2 hours to fill up fully
• When being transported, the tanks cannot travel over 25 MPH
• Health experts think the re-surge could be caused by new variants (B.1.617 and B.1.1.7 )

Government Response

Government Response

• Vaccines are available for everyone 18 and older on May 1st
• Some cities announced new lockdown restrictions
• PM Modi refuses to set nation wide lockdown restrictions
• He believes that lockdown should be the last resort
• In addition, the government announced that they are going to build 551 new oxygen plants
• They announced a similar plan in October of 2020
• The government said they had planned to build 162 new plants
• Only 33 of these have actually been built
• Modi allowed Holi celebrations
• Some think this is part of the reason there was a re-surge in cases

Vaccine Nationalism

What is it?

• Vaccine Nationalism: the idea that a country should only be responsible for vaccinating its own population.
• Dozens of wealthy governments are securing vaccines and/or raw materials needed to produce vaccines for their own populations and therefore limiting the stock available for others.
• Right now, vaccine access and vaccination rates are high in high-to-upper income countries but remain low among lower-income and lower-resource countries.
• This hoarding of vaccines and materials is very detrimental to developing countries such as India.

According to Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center, high-income countries have secured 4.7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, compared to only 770 million acquired by low-income countries.

The U.S. is considered High income

India is considered Lower middle income

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Resource: World Bank Classification

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US population: 328.2 million

India population: 1.366 billion (more than 4x)

International Criticism and Hostility

U.S. Criticism and Response

• The U.S. has been condemned for “stockpiling” the raw materials needed to produce the vaccine and the vaccine itself
• This, and the U.S.’s delay of addressing the assistance to India, piled criticism against the Biden administration on social media in and out of India.
• The Times of India condemned the U.S.: “selfish” “hypocritical” “indifferent” “unreliable” “plays geopolitics to serve its own interests”
• The Biden administration later promised the immediate export of raw materials for India’s vaccine production, therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and protection.
• Why not the vaccine immediately? - India produces its own Covishield and Covaxin vaccine.

Growing Hostility

• Since the pandemic started, hostility and suspicion for exploiting the pandemic have been an issue between the two
• In 2020, the Trump administration had already begun to blame China for “vaccine diplomacy,” a concern that the Biden administration shares
• Now, Washington is receiving the same backlash as Beijing in 2020
• President Biden’s decision of potentially distributing 10 million U.S. stocks of the AstraZeneca vaccine internationally has been heavily criticized by Beijing
• The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved by the FDA for the U.S. to use
• So far, the U.S. also has no intention of using the AstraZeneca vaccine even if it becomes approved
• U.S. plans to send Canada and Mexico of roughly 4 million doses

Growing Hostility (Continued)

• Beijing has scorned that the U.S. is just distributing inferior vaccines that they don’t want for their own citizens
• China has also offered its own help, including medical equipment and Chinese vaccines.
• Beijing has already airlifted 800 oxygen contractors from Hong Kong to New Delhi and will have 10,000 more coming within a week
• Despite their efforts, speculations worldwide have been made that both the U.S. and China are not sincerely concerned about India.
• Washington is aiding to “damage control”
• Beijing is trying to highlight the failure and unreliability of the U.S. to drive a split between India-U.S. relations

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Global Themes

Discussion Questions + Global Themes

Discussion Question #1

Discussion Question #2

If you were the leader of a high-income country, would you prioritize your own population’s vaccination?

If you were the Prime Minister, would you still allow religious celebrations to happen during the pandemic?

Illustrate the dilemma between a nation-state’s immediate self-interest and a longer term “enlightened” self interest that considers the welfare of other nations and of future generations.

Show how perception is more important than reality in politics

Thank you!

Does anyone have any questions?

CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik

Sources

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amanda_m_macias. “U.S. to Give India Raw Materials for Vaccines, Medical Supplies to Help Fight Covid Surge.” CNBC, CNBC, 26 Apr. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/04/25/us-to-give-india-raw-materials-for-vaccines-medical-supplies-to-fight-covid.html.

“China Attempts to Exploit India's Criticism of Sluggish U.S. Aid for Its Coronavirus Crisis.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2021-04-27/china-attempts-to-exploit-indias-criticism-of-sluggish-us-aid-for-its-coronavirus-crisis.

“As US and China Offer Coronavirus Aid, India Wary of Hidden Agendas.” South China Morning Post, 27 Apr. 2021, www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3131268/us-and-china-offer-coronavirus-aid-india-wary-hidden.

Chidanand Rajghatta / TNN / Updated: Apr 27, 2021. “US Government Jolts into Action to Aid India after Criticism of Silence: India News - Times of India.” The Times of India, TOI,

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/covid-19-us-diverting-raw-materials-to-serum-institute-for-vaccine-production/articleshow/82265240.cms

Krishnan, Ananth. “China Offers Vaccines to South Asia, Says 'Ready to Support' India.” The Hindu, The Hindu, 27 Apr. 2021, www.thehindu.com/news/international/china-offers-vaccines-to-south-asia-says-ready-to-support-india/article34423395.ece.

Times, Global. “US Slammed for 'Selfish,' 'Indifferent' Response to India's Call for Help amid Devastating COVID-19 Crisis.” Global Times, www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1222068.shtml.

Team, BS Web. “Coronavirus Vaccine Registration: FAQs on Covid-19 Vaccine, CoWIN, and More.” Business Standard, Business-Standard, 28 Apr. 2021, www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/coronavirus-vaccine-registration-faqs-on-covid-19-vaccine-cowin-side-effects-covishield-risks-covaxin-all-you-need-to-know-121042800459_1.html.

Antonia Noori Farzan, Claire Parker. “How Did the Covid-19 Outbreak in India Get so Bad?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Apr. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/27/india-covid-surge-faq/.

“Huge Gatherings at India's Hindu Festival as Virus Surges.” Voice of America, www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/huge-gatherings-indias-hindu-festival-virus-surges.

“mueller7accent-Dict 2002.02.27-8 / Usr / Share / Dictd / mueller7accent.Index.” /Usr/Share/Dictd/mueller7accent.Index, www.apt-browse.org/browse/debian/wheezy/main/all/mueller7accent-dict/2002.02.27-8/file/usr/share/dictd/mueller7accent.index.

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