The US's top medical expert weighed in on India's Covid crisis, the government's decision to extend the gap between two doses of Covishield and the upcoming Sputnik vaccine rollout.
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00:00India is one of the best, if not the biggest, vaccine producer in the world.
00:05So you've got to use some of those resources for your own people.
00:10You can get the military to put up field hospitals the same way they would during time of war.
00:19Now, government of India just hours ago has agreed to extend the gap between two doses of
00:24Covishield from six to eight weeks to 12 to 16 weeks now. As an expert, what do you think that
00:30this extended interval is beneficial from the efficacy standpoint, or like the critics suggest,
00:36that this might be might be just another cover up since there aren't enough vaccines in India?
00:41I would not refer to it as a cover up. When you don't have enough vaccines,
00:46what you've got to do is try to get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can. And for that
00:52reason, when you have a shortage of vaccine, extending the duration between the first and
00:58the second dose in order to get more people to at least get a first dose is a reasonable approach.
01:06The fact that you delay it that long, it is very unlikely that it would have a negative effect
01:12on the efficacy of the vaccine. So in many respects, when you are in a very difficult situation,
01:20the way you are in India, you have to try and figure out ways to get as many vaccines into
01:26people as quickly as you can. So that I believe is a reasonable approach to do.
01:32I wouldn't call that a cover up at all. Still sticking on to the vaccines. Now,
01:37Dr. Fauci, there are what are your views on the efficacy of the vaccine in India,
01:41which is made in India, and also India will start rolling out the Sputnik in a week's time from now.
01:47What are your views on that vaccine? You know, I don't have much information
01:51on the COVAX. But what I do know is that the reports that I've heard about the Sputnik
01:57is that it seems to be quite efficacious, you know, at a high level close to 90% or so.
02:04But I don't have enough information on the COVAX to really say anything that would be helpful.
02:08Back in the United States, just last year, especially in New York, we did see the
02:13Department of Defense take control of the pandemic hands on. You suggest that the military
02:18in India should step up at this point? Well, obviously, that decision is going to
02:23have to be made by the Indian authorities. But I do know that, particularly the thing I had
02:29suggested in another conversation with Indian journalists, is that you can use the military
02:36sometimes to get things done quickly that you otherwise in the private sector would not be able
02:42to. For example, I know that there's a shortage of hospital beds right now that people who need
02:49to be in a hospital are not getting into a hospital because of the shortage of the beds.
02:55You can get the military to put up field hospitals the same way they would during time of war,
03:01that could serve as a substitute for the classic hospital. In the United States,
03:07we have used our military to get the distribution of the vaccines to various locations throughout
03:15the country. In fact, the person that was put in charge of that is a four-star general,
03:21General Gus Perna, who is responsible for efficiently and effectively
03:27getting doses to multiple different locations throughout the country.
03:31Regarding resuming the travel, you know, what threshold would you like to see established in
03:36order to determine whether it's safe to resume travel to India? It really is going to depend
03:41on the level of infection. Right now, India has a very, very, very high level of infection.
03:49And that would mean that it would be very, very difficult to resume travel there right now.
03:54From a public health point of view, how did India really get to where it is today? And
03:58what can India do right now so that things start getting better in a much meaningful way than what
04:04it is right now in India? Well, you know, there's the immediate issue that needs to be addressed
04:09is taking care of the people that are already infected. And that's getting better supplies
04:14of oxygen, oxygen cylinders, oxygen generators, PPEs, therapies like remdesivir, and things like
04:23that. The intermediate and long run, you've got to figure out a way how to get as many vaccinations
04:29administered to the people of India as possible. You mean, obviously, you know, it's a very, very
04:34large country with a population of about 1.4 billion people, you only have a couple of percentage
04:40of the people who are fully vaccinated and know about 10% or so that have at least one dose. So
04:46you've got to work out arrangements with other countries, other companies at the same time as
04:54ramping up your own capability of making vaccines. Because as we all know, India is one of the best,
05:01if not the biggest vaccine producer in the world. So you've got to use some of those resources
05:08for your own people. Right. Now, like you said, India is one of the best manufacturers in the
05:13world, you know, but things are very, very tight and dire right now. B.1.617 has now been found in
05:21more than 30 countries, including the United States. You've repeatedly said that the global
05:25pandemic requires a global response. Do you think it's time for America and other countries to turn
05:31over to global vaccinations quickly, since a lot is at stake, not just in India and other countries
05:37like Africa, which are so dependent on India for vaccinations? Well, yes, I mean, I believe that
05:42the rich countries and the countries that have the capability of making and distributing vaccines
05:49really do have a moral responsibility to assist those countries that don't have
05:53the capability of doing that, particularly low and middle income countries. We did this
05:59with HIV, with the PEPFAR program, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
06:04which at first was directed to Southern Africa. I think that we need to try everything we possibly
06:12can. You see a realistic timeline for this rollout of vaccines from America to India?
06:17No, I don't. I can't predict that. I'm sorry.