Why India’s worsening COVID crisis is a dire problem for us all

The world’s biggest producer of vaccines, the Serum Institute of India, was supposed to supply doses under the Covax scheme to poorer nations, mostly in Africa. Doses have now been diverted for India’s needs, which is itself struggling to acquire material for vaccine production from the US. As a consequence of the crisis, this month India shipped just 1.2m doses abroad compared with 64m in the three months prior. China, which has heavily pushed its own version of vaccine diplomacy, has already moved to fill that vacuum. Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said that “China is willing to provide the necessary support and help” to India, though he did not detail specific information. The UK government has also indicated willingness to help, with Downing Street saying it could, if called upon, offer support to help with airlifting of supplies and on-the-ground logistics. But what India needs immediately is supplies for its vaccine factories, currently held up by US export restrictions, and tools, such as genomic sequencing, to identify and control existing and emerging variants.