According to a working paper by Stanford University and the Institute for Competitiveness, the Covid-19 vaccination program in India was able to save 3.4 million lives and generate a net economic benefit of $15.4 billion by preventing losses.
The Stanford University report was released by Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Health Minister, who presented the paper during his virtual address at the university’s “The India Dialog.”
The paper examined the three pillars of India’s pandemic strategy: containment, relief efforts, and vaccine distribution.
In his speech, Mandaviya claimed that India has carried out the largest vaccination campaign in history, providing over 2.2 billion doses to people over the age of 12 with 97 percent coverage of the first dose and 90 percent coverage of the second dosage.
Due to the campaign’s emphasis on equitable coverage for everyone, all citizens received free vaccinations. He claimed that to assure last-mile delivery, campaigns and digital tools like “Har Ghar Dastak,” mobile vaccination teams, as well as the Co-Win vaccine management platform were used.
He added that the success depended on allaying anxieties and controlling misinformation.
According to the research, the vaccination saved a total loss of $18.3 billion; after deducting the cost of the immunisation drive, the net benefit was $15.4 billion.
The study concluded that the advantages of vaccination outweighed the costs and recommended that it be viewed as a macroeconomic stabilising indicator rather than only a health intervention.
According to the report, local vaccine development and production enabled the government to immunise a significant number of individuals while also easing the strain on the nation’s healthcare facilities.
According to the findings, timely lockdown helped avert 100,000–2,000,000 deaths that may have occurred otherwise. According to the report, the lockdown helped to delay the country’s peak infection rate until September 2020, giving authorities the time they needed to upgrade the nation’s health system.
