India’s New Vaccine Strategy Is Bad Economics
Putting a price on shots could lead to unjust, lopsided distribution. The cost to the consumer should be zero.
Make it free.
Photographer: Sumit Dayal/BloombergAfter a tightly centralized vaccination drive that has delivered the required two shots to less than 2% of the population, India is opening up its inoculation strategy in the middle of a raging pandemic. Can the new approach flatten the curve?
Expanding the campaign to all adults below 45 starting next month is a late but welcome move. India’s daily infection rate of almost 350,000 is the worst any country has experienced. Even then, shifting a big part of the financial burden to 28 state governments and letting private hospitals buy shots at 600 to 1200 rupees ($8 to $16) apiece — and sell them to patients at even higher prices — are both wrong.