Bibek Debroy, Bjorn Lomborg, Aditya Sinha
Vaccination or vaccination is no less than a miracle. It has saved more lives in the world than any other medical discovery. It gave a weapon to control such diseases in terms of the entire population, which were killing a large number of people in the world. Yet we forget how fundamentally vaccination has changed human life.
At the end of the last century, infectious diseases accounted for a third of all deaths in the United States. If compared according to today, more people were dying of infectious diseases then than the number of people who are taking their lives from cancer and heart disease. Today, vaccines have almost eradicated diseases like diphtheria, typhoid, measles. At the same time, in the 20th century, these diseases were making millions of people sick every year. There has been a reduction of 98 percent in the number of people suffering from such diseases. If we look at the poor countries of the world, this success will seem even bigger. For thousands of years, smallpox had killed a large number of humans, but in 1977, with the help of a vaccine, we got it under control. About 300 million people died due to smallpox in the 20th century. If its vaccine had not been made, then this disease would have killed 50 million people every year.
According to an estimate in the year 2000, the vaccine is saving the lives of 1.16 crore people every year in the world. Since then this number has only increased. Leaving aside smallpox, even today vaccination is saving 3.8 million lives every year across the world. Regrettably, despite this advantage, millions of children in poor countries are not getting vaccinated every year. This crisis has increased further after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the year 2021, about 25 million children could not be given life-saving vaccines due to the pandemic. This is the biggest number in the last 12 years. Actually, due to recession, inflation and many other global challenges, the world’s attention has been diverted from vaccination.
The international community promised in 2015 that by 2030 the infant mortality rate would be drastically reduced. This target was set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But this will be achieved only when we save as many lives as we can with the vaccine. Unfortunately, the SDGs set 169 targets, which is too many. Of course, the development goals also include important goals like increasing vaccination, eliminating infant mortality, but these have been given equal priority to increasing recycling and living a lifestyle in harmony with nature, which is not right. In fact, by setting far higher targets in the SDGs, we do not appear to be achieving any of these goals.
That’s why we have to include the important goals in the top priorities. Researchers from America’s John Hopkins University and the International Access Center (IVAC) have estimated the benefits and costs of increasing vaccination. According to this, the amount of money being spent on this now, if the same pace is maintained, then by 2030, 38 lakh lives will be saved. But if there is a slight increase in its scope, then the results can be much better. With this, we can save another 41 lakh lives between 2023 and 2030. It is true that this will also increase the expenditure. For this, vaccination campaigns will have to be run in remote areas. Those families have to be reached, which are still out of its purview. But India can show the way to deal with this challenge. Food incentives are also given along with vaccination camps in India so that more people can come under the ambit of vaccination. This experiment has been successful.
India’s experience shows that giving food incentives will not add much to the cost. This would lead to an additional $1.7 billion in spending each year, or $7.5 billion by 2030. If another 41 lakh lives can be saved by increasing this much expenditure, then it will be called amazing. India can be a good example in terms of vaccination, especially for developing countries. This campaign is being run here under the name of Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI). Between 2015 and 2017, IMI resulted in a 37% increase in complete vaccination in 190 low-performing districts. There this figure increased from 50.5 percent to 69 percent. Today IMI 4.0 is the largest immunization program in the world, immunizing 3 million pregnant women and 2.6 million infants every year. Along with this, it is also necessary to discuss the COVID-19 vaccination program, in which 2.2 billion doses were given to people in India to avoid the epidemic.
Apart from saving lives, vaccination is also a powerful medium in terms of economic prosperity. Vaccination helps in the mental development of children. When they do become employable, it makes them more likely to succeed. There is no doubt that some of the targets set in the Development Goals have benefited the world tremendously. Out of this, increasing the scope of vaccination is also included. That’s why increasing the expenditure on vaccination and extending its benefits to maximum number of people must be included in our priorities.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own.