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On-screen text: As COVID-19 cases surged in India over the past few months,
the country locked down cities and struggled to find hospital beds and oxygen.
Varying supply of COVID-19 vaccines revealed stark divisions
between social classes and in urban and rural communities.
Jon Cohen: The country has been turned upside down by the pandemic.
I got on the airplane March 27.
When I arrived in India,
the caseload was like 80,000 a day.
By the middle of May, it had climbed to 400,000.
I mean, just tragic beyond belief.
I was watching it grow.
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On-screen text: Despite being home to major vaccine companies
India has been slow vaccinating its nearly 1.4 billion people.
Limited supply and vaccine hesitancy have hindered the effort.
India first authorized the use of the Serum Institute vaccine,
which is called Covishield, and the
Bharat vaccine, which is called COVAXIN.
They started vaccinating people January 16th.
So they’re about a month behind the United States
in terms of rolling out vaccine.
Jon: Christian Medical College in Vellore--
which is an enormous campus of five different hospitals--
when they rolled out the vaccine, after six weeks time,
30 percent of the doctors and nurses hadn't been vaccinated.
We saw hesitancy like that in healthcare systems in the United States,
but not at that level.
And certainly not at the most prominent medical institutions.
Part of it, I think,
is linked to the fact that adults aren't used to being vaccinated.
Translator: He doesn’t want to take vaccine.
Jon: And why not?
Translator: He’s not bothered about it
because he feels that nothing will happen to him.
In the case of Mumbai, I went through the slums
with a group of what are called barefoot researchers.
They're young people who grew up in the slums.
And they work for an NGO called Pukar
that helps the slums improve living conditions,
and at the same time, does research into diarrheal diseases.
Jon: You teach people about the masks?
Baliram boomkar: Yeah, masks.
Jon: But hardly anyone here wears masks.
Baliram boomkar: Yeah, because they don't believe--
lots of people don’t believe in COVID.
Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 love slums. It is the ideal condition for the virus:
close quarters, unmasked.
You know, whereas many people who have money
can stay at home and shelter in place…
that’s pretty hard when you don’t have any resources
and you don’t have food.
So you’re forced to go to work
and put yourself at risk getting on public transport.
But this surge in India, make no mistake,
is hitting every sector of society.
The system broke down.
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On-screen text: India’s vaccine rollout has faltered.
But the latest surge may have crested, as new cases are declining.
Vaccines are steadily reaching more people,
and Serum and Bharat have ramped up production.
I think we're at the crisis moment now.
I think we're going to pass through it.
There will be more and more supply of vaccine available.
Jon: So you’re coming for your second vaccine?
Patient: Second dose.
Business as usual doesn't work.
The vaccines work.
We know they do. They do allow us to open up again.
Everywhere in the world should enjoy this return to normalcy.
Everywhere can get there with enough product
and enough willingness to take the vaccine and
enough structure of public health systems to get it to people and
to educate and make it easy for them to receive their vaccines.
If we don't take care of everyone in the world—
as many people have stressed—
we're just asking for the virus to keep coming back at us
wherever we live.