The
development of vaccines has proved to be revolutionary and transformed our
approach to eradicating life – threatening diseases and enhancing human health.
In Vaccine Nation: How Immunization Shaped India, Ameer Shahul
chronicles the highly underappreciated story of how India emerged as a global
vaccine powerhouse, one of the largest producers of high-quality, cost
-effective vaccines, supplying effective immunizations to over a hundred
countries and blazing fresh trails innovation wise from having languished on the sidelines during
the colonial era, held back by British apathy and a non – existent
infrastructure for healthcare.
Shahul
offers a meticulous and sweeping account of India’s immunization journey. The
story has its genesis during the early twentieth century when the British
established vaccine institutions in cool hill stations, designed to serve the
colonial officers rather than the colonized masses, indicative of a
civilizational gulf exacerbated by racism, poverty and illiteracy. Though the
seeds had been sown albeit reluctantly, Independent India had little to go on,
emerging bruised and battered after centuries of oppression and the fresh
wounds inflicted by a bloody partition, guided solely by a vision for self –
reliance.
With a
sound grasp on the science, Shahul is also a compelling storyteller drawing up colourful
portraits of giants in the field like Waldemar Haffkine, Sahib Singh Sokhey,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, John Jacob, Gursaran Talwar, Varaprasad Reddy, Cyrus
Poonawala among others and peppering the narrative with anecdotes like how if a
carefully held secret about Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s health had been spilled, the
partition might have been prevented. His account of the development and
production of the 1957 influenza vaccine in less than four months which remains
a record and triumph in India is particularly thrilling.
Even more
interesting is his narration of the desi David vs Goliath true story when
Varaprasad and his Shantha team inspired by the likes of Salk and Sabin (who
had refused to patent their groundbreaking techniques in the fight against
polio) had the audacity to launch Shanvac – B, an effective hepatitis B vaccine
at about $1 and despite dire predictions, managed healthy profits, forcing
market prices to drop dramatically, a slap in the face of greedy big pharma.
According to the author, “Shantha had held a mirror to the true face of foreign
vaccine companies operating in India. Indian health administers and regulators
were stunned to discover that a company claiming to ‘exist to save lives’ had
been selling a life – saving vaccine at 150 times its cost!”
While
generously celebrating the success stories and unlikely heroes in this epic
tale of vaccination, Shahul does not shy away from harsh criticism of those
within and without the system who contributed to corruption and profiteering
which led to human rights violations and rampant breaches in medical ethics
where innovation was undermined by exploitation. Pulling no punches, the author
outlines the sordid saga of the excesses of the Patali Makkal Katchi (PMK)
leader, Ramadoss when he was allocated the Health Ministry after the 2004
elections as part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Undoing decades of
good work with unsavoury manoeuvring, the Health Ministry unjustly suspended
the licenses of three reputed government – supported vaccine makers for
personal gain leading to a largely preventable and manmade vaccine catastrophe
and shortage, aggravated to unthinkable levels directly leading to the
unaccounted deaths of too many infants. Despite mounting pressure and censure,
the key players were not brought to justice. The fallout was near nuclear: “The
vaccine sector had by now morphed into a theatre of political influence, with
pharma giants currying favour with their political benefactors through opaque
instruments like electoral bonds.”
Narrating
India’s successes and setbacks during the Covid pandemic, he makes it clear
that vaccine equity remains a dream especially since the wealthy nations in the
West are unwilling to help out or share technological knowhow and in India
itself an alarming trend has emerged where science is being twisted to fit
ideological narratives and political optics. In conclusion, Shahul urges, “Let
India not just remain the vaccine capital of the world but also become its
conscience – advancing science not merely for prestige, but for purpose.” The
nation and its citizens would do well to pay heed to this gem of a book.
This book review was originally published in TNIE Magazine.
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