Episode 13: India's COVID-19 Crisis and the Vaccine Apartheid
// Trigger Warning // During this episode, we discuss loss, exploitation, systemic racism, and the devastating results of healthcare inequities. If you need to at any point, pause, step away or just stop listening, I understand. Unpacking moments of profound communal trauma can be incredibly difficult.
People Over Patents: Unpacking the Vaccine Apartheid
While India is officially logging well over 350,000 COVID-19 cases per day, the number of deaths are being grossly underreported. Access to care is a privilege in a country grappling with fascism. To fully understand the situation unraveling in India and across the Global South, we must understand the ways in which neocolonialism and capitalism intersect and further the very inequities that leave communities of color being exploited by our global system. In Episode 13 of Art of Citizenry Podcast, Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by Anna Canning of Fair World Project for a conversation deconstructing the global vaccine apartheid, racialized capitalism, and WTO’s TRIPS agreement.
India’s COVID-19 Crisis
Every 4 minutes a person is dying in New Delhi. Across the country, India is officially logging well over 350,000 cases per day. Deaths are going grossly underreported. Causes of death are being intentionally mislabeled to create the impression that the COVID death rate isn’t as bad as it really is. Officially, the daily death toll is around 3000-4000 deaths per day. In a TIME article by Rana Ayyub, she cites health professionals stating that the daily death toll is likely over 10,000.
India’s public parks are being used to cremate loved ones as crematoriums exceed capacity, with piles of bodies 10 miles long in some parts of India. Beneath this grim reality lies layers of systemic inequities that prioritize the interests of those who hold the most power over those who are forced to yield it. India’s crisis sits at the intersection of neocolonialism, capitalism and fascism, deeply rooted in a history of extraction and further compounded by various forms of systemic oppression that continue to uphold colonial legacies.
“The crisis we see unfolding in India didn’t just happen - it's a symptom of an unjust global economy that puts profits before people every step of the way.” - Anna Canning
Since Prime Minister Modi took office in 2014, India has been in utter disarray. Marginalized populations have been the target of blatant ethnic cleansing, policy decisions have been driven by corporate interests, dissent has been silenced and punished, and extreme nationalism has continued to threaten the lives of minorities throughout the country. India has a history of human rights violations that far precede Modi’s term as prime minister. Neglect for human life is a common narrative in a country with such a dense population. To put it into perspective, India has a population of 1.38 billion despite being 1/3rd the size of the United States, which has a population of 331 million. India’s reality hits incredibly close to home for me as we navigate honest conversations with our family about mortality, vaccine misinformation, and access to care with many family members being high risk. It’s honestly hard not to be utterly frustrated at times and, at other times, just simply sad to the point that you don’t want to talk about it.
Despite people actively dying in the thousands every day, the government fails to provide the leadership necessary to tackle this public health crisis. At the beginning of the pandemic, Modi imposed an overnight nationwide lockdown with only a few hours’ notice without consulting any public health experts. This meant millions of migrant workers from Nepal, Bangladesh and across India were left stranded hundreds of miles from their homes. Without food and shelter, many slept on the streets, risking their lives. Yet again, those most impacted by systems of oppression were hurt by political irresponsibility. During the lockdowns, instead of investing time and money into building capacity for the larger health system, Modi and his government acted as though they had “beat” COVID and that a future outbreak was impossible. So much so that the country’s coronavirus task force stopped meeting — touting around the slogan Atma Nirbhar Bharat - a self sufficient India. This falsified sense of safety, further amplified by state-controlled media outlets, led to the pendulum swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum with the country opening up as if nothing had happened. People continued to go about their daily lives, and Modi painted a narrative that made him appear as though he saved humanity — pridefully boasting about sending 55 million doses of the vaccine to 62 different countries all while only a small fraction of India’s population was vaccinated. Let’s be clear: Modi put himself, his economic interests, and his party’s political interests above the wellbeing of India’s people. This is a mass murder.
In the trenches of India’s second wave, Modi continues to prioritize politics over people. As four of the country’s states went to the polls for legislative elections, Modi threw himself into full campaign mode, attending rallies without any prospect of social distancing and with mostly unmasked supporters. He also gave the green light for a massive religious Hindu festival, Kumbh Mela, which attracts millions of pilgrims to the Ganga river every 12 years. Millions participated in this weeks-long festival, which has turned into a confirmed super spreader event. But Modi did what any politician who cares more about securing votes over public health would do, he gave his majority voter base what they wanted to secure the Hindu vote.
The economic disparity we see playing out is baked into how India operates as a country, with India’s poor continuing to suffer and the rich getting richer. Wealth disparity is a real issue and human lives are valued on the basis of the amount of money you are able to cough up. Pride is intrinsically tied to wealth because it is simply the currency used when determining the value of each human life in India. I say this as an individual living in the diaspora, fully recognizing the privilege I hold.
Despite being the world's largest producer of vaccines, India has fully vaccinated less than 2 percent of its 1.3 billion people. To understand this, we need to come to terms with the ways in which neocolonialism and capitalism continue to influence how we navigate as a global economy.
The World Trade Organization (WTO): TRIPS Waiver
The WTO oversees trade between nations. An aspect of trade that falls under the WTO’s purview is patent protections under a legal agreement called Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights known as TRIPS, which essentially looks at and enforces patent protections. Now this is where things get a little tricky. Pharmaceutical companies have patents on the vaccines that they manufacture. Basically, think about intellectual property as a way to protect corporate power and wealth, which then further allows them to control vaccine access and production. COVID vaccines could be in production everywhere, but instead, big Pharma patents are preventing access. Now remember, this vaccine research is funded by us, the taxpayers. However the companies retain patents, which are incredibly lucrative, especially when your patent is for a vaccine that is necessary for the wellbeing of the world. In fact, Pfizer is on track to make an 80% profit margin. Talk about no risk, high reward. So, how can we talk about equity when navigating a capitalist system that is rooted in the hoarding of wealth, prioritizing profits from patents over people?
The TRIPS Waiver was presented to the WTO back in October 2020. However, the US finally came out in support this week on Wednesday, May 5th, 2021. It took mass carnage before the government decided to take a stand in favor of equity and justice. While it heartens me to know progress is happening, I would be lying if I didn’t mention how disheartened I am to know that corporate profits continue to take priority over human lives. These deaths were entirely preventable, the global community was just late to respond. However, the US finally coming out in support of the TRIPS waiver is just the beginning. There is still a lack of clarity and we still need to see how negotiations play out. Katherine Tai, the US trade representative who announced the Biden administration’s stance on the waiver, stated: “These negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.” While the WTO, countries and companies continue to negotiate, those who suffer are people, namely Black and Brown communities of the Global South. I will continue to live each day worried about the wellbeing of my cousin who is struggling to get access to a vaccine in a small town of Punjab. I will continue to worry about the wellbeing of my family and community members. All while the countries that colonized us continue to claim their position as the ultimate heroes of the story, feeding in centuries of colonial narratives that continue to dictate how we operate as a global community.
Take Action, Join in Solidarity
Donate to Khalsa Aid or Hemkunt Foundation — two organizations doing phenomenal work on the ground.
Make a public statement sharing what global vaccine access means to you and partners you work with around the globe.
Connect with Our Guest
In her role at Fair World Project, Anna Canning works to build a more fair food system through corporate campaigns. She has over 15 years of experience working all along the supply chain for fair trade companies in the natural foods industry. She brings this hands-on experience to her analysis and a passion for challenging power by changing the stories we tell.
About Fair World Project: Fair World Project does education and advocacy around fair trade related issues - supporting human rights and trade justice here in the US and around the globe. Subscribe to their For A Better World podcast to hear from farmers, workers and activists around the globe who are organizing and building alternative models that are rooted in justice and can heal the earth—building a better world for everyone
Connect + Support Their Work: Website, Instagram, Twitter, Podcast
Links to Articles Cited in this Episode
/Fair World Project/ Put People before Big Pharma Profits: Make COVID-19 Vaccines Accessible
/Truthout/ Big Pharma’s Shareholder Payouts Are Enough to Fund Vaccines for All of Africa
/Washington Post/ Modi’s pandemic choice: Protect his image or protect India. He chose himself.
/TIME/ ’This Is Hell.' Prime Minister Modi's Failure to Lead Is Deepening India's COVID-19 Crisis
/New York Times/ Pandemic’s Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccine Rollout
/Truthout/ Modi’s Pandemic Response in India Is Turning a Profit From Death
Thank You
Art of Citizenry is a community supported podcast dedicated to decolonizing storytelling. This allows me to have unfiltered and nuanced conversations that challenge how power plays out in conversations about social, economic, climate, and geopolitical justice. We unpack history to really identify ways we can build a more equitable future, one that is restorative and just.
Finally, thank you for listening! Please subscribe, download, and leave a review for Art of Citizenry Podcast — I appreciate your love and support! Also, if you want to connect, please feel free to follow me and share your thoughts with me on Instagram @manpreetkalra + @artofcitizenry.