Cyrus Poonawalla, Managing Director of Serum Institute of India said that by end of this year, it is highly impossible to vaccinate the entire Indian population in view of productions of vaccines. Poonawalla also warned mixing of two vaccines and administering them may have side effects in future.
While receiving the Lokmanya Tilak award in Pune, Cyrus Poonawalla said that the politicians who are claiming that all of India will be vaccinated is a complete white lie.
He said that the Serum Institute of India has been producing 10 to 12 crore of vaccines doses per month while another firm has one crore doses. SII is the largest vaccines producer in the world.
“Annually, the rough calculations is around 120-130 crore doses, so these numbers of doses are not enough to vaccinate the entire population of India. We should not believe those who are lying about vaccinations by end of this year,” Poonawalla said candidly.
He said that SII has lowered down the productions of other vaccines and focusing on Covishied vaccines only. “Despite that, we are able to produce 10 to 12 crore vaccine doses per month. We are the only company that has been producing the highest number of doses across the world,” Poonawalla claimed.
He also warned about mixing or cocktailing the two vaccines. “I am against that decision of mixing two vaccines and giving to people. The cocktail doses may have side effects in the future. If one vaccine is working properly, then why unnecessary we are mixing them. If something happens, then vaccines firms will blame each other. We should not jeopardize people's life,” Poonawalla said adding in pretrial also, this mixing was not advised.
He also said that after taking the two doses, people can take the third dose after six months of the second dose as a booster dose.
“It has been observed that the antibodies are being reduced after six months of vaccinations. Therefore, it is my kind suggestion that people can take the third dose as a booster dose. I myself and all 7000 employees of SII have taken the third dose of vaccines. The government may also advise over it,” he said.
He added that there should be two months gap between two doses, not three or four. “If the person is infected with Covid, then they can delay in vaccinations. In normal cases, it should not be done. The government was facing a shortage of vaccines therefore they increased the gap period between two doses,” Poonawalla said.
He also said that the lockdown is not the solution.
“The death rate is very low so we should open the economy one by one. And at the same time, vaccinate people. Besides, there will be herd immunity. I think there will be a third wave in India because the herd immunity has been increasing in India,” Poonawalla said.
Poonawalla said that the central government should lift the ban on the export of vaccines.
“My son strictly warned me not to speak over this issue. But we are facing huge losses in profit. We had an international commitment. Even internal firms like Bill Gates foundation has given Rs 5000 crore in advances to give vaccines, but we failed to meet their demand and fulfill the agreement. We want to return back their money, but they are not taking, they want vaccines,” he added.