India’s vaccines ‘rescued the world’: Top US scientist

Top American scientist has greatly appreciated India for providing vaccines for nearly 50 countries all around the world.

During a webinar on Sunday, Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston said the two mRNA vaccines may not impact the world’s low and middle income countries, but India’s vaccines, made in collaboration with universities across the world such as BCM and Oxford University, have “rescued the world” and its contributions must not to be underestimated, a PTI report said.

Dr Peter Hotez praised India’s move as ‘gift to the world’ in curbing the coronavirus spread and will be remembered as a time when the country stepped up in a major way as a global player in innovation, the report said.

Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven had lauded India’s role as the pharmacy of the world.
\India has so far supplied 476.26 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine globally, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

During the webinar, “COVID-19: Vaccination and Potential Return to Normalcy – If and When”, Dr Hotez, an internationally-recognised physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development, said “This is something very special and I see it myself because I’m on weekly teleconferences with our colleagues in India, you make a recommendation, and within days it’s done and not only done, but it’s done well and with incredible rigor and thought and creativity,” Dr Hotez said, stressing that he felt compelled to make this statement because “India’s huge efforts in combating global pandemic is a story that’s not really getting out in the world.”

Dr Hotez, considered as the authority on vaccinations, is working on an affordable coronavirus vaccine in collaboration with Indian pharmaceutical companies,the PTI report said.

India’s drugs regulator gave emergency use authorization to Covishield, produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India after securing licence from British pharma company AstraZeneca, and Covaxin, indigenously developed jointly by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research scientists.

The webinar was organised by Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH).

Appreciating Dr. Hotez for commending India’s efforts in getting vaccines to the world, Consul General Mahajan, said, “in keeping with “our tradition of sharing with the world,” India has exported vaccines to many countries across the world, the PTI report said.