Why India's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is faltering

As India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, we look at what’s holding back the country's vaccination rollout and how a shift in distribution and pricing strategy is causing concern. And we speak to a researcher who went hunting for fungi in the world's largest seed bank. Listen to episode 15 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.

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India's catastrophic COVID-19 crisis shows little sign of improving. By early May, just over 2% of India's population had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In this episode, we look at why it's currently so hard to get a vaccine in India and speak to three experts about the situation. Rajib Dasgupta, professor and chairperson at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, tells us that the decision to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults from May 1 had been held back by a shortage of supply. R Ramakumar, professor of economics at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, raises concerns about a shift in pricing and distribution that happened at the same time. And Gagandeep Kang, professor of microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, explains what we know so far about the vaccines and the variants currently circulating in the country.

In our second story, Rowena Hill, a PhD candidate at Kew Gardens and Queen Mary University of London, explains how she found a hidden world of microscopic fungi living inside the seeds of the world's largest seed bank.

And Carissa Lee, Indigenous and public policy editor at The Conversation in Australia gives some recommended reading on a recent series marking 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Special thanks for this episode go to Namita Kohli in New Delhi. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on [email protected]. Full credits for this episode can be found here. And a transcript is available here.

Further reading:

• Why variants are most likely to blame for India’s COVID surge, by Rajib Dasgupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University 
• Charging Indians for COVID vaccines is bad, letting vaccine producers charge what they like is unconscionable, by R. Ramakumar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
• India: election loss in West Bengal may be start of a backlash against Modi’s handling of COVID crisis, by Saba Hussain, Coventry University
• COVID in India: the deep-rooted issues behind the current crisis, by Vageesh Jain, UCL
• ‘Each burning pyre is an unspeakable, screeching horror’ – one researcher on the frontline of India’s COVID crisis. by Vyoma Dhar Sharma, University of Oxford
• COVID in India: a tragedy with its roots in Narendra Modi’s leadership style, by Nitasha Kaul, University of Westminster
• How we discovered a hidden world of fungi inside the world’s biggest seed bank, by Rowena Hill, Queen Mary University of London
• Not criminals or passive victims: media need to reframe their representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody, by Amanda Porter and Eddie Cubillo, The University of Melbourne
• Indigenous deaths in custody: inquests can be sites of justice or administrative violence, by Alison Whittaker, University of Technology Sydney