Inconsistencies and Contradictions

 On 7 th June 2021, PM has announced that 21 st June onwards there will not be state government supplied vaccination for age group 18-45 and all publicly provided vaccination will be through union government. For the end user of government vaccination, it remains to be a free vaccine as it was earlier, but it is likely that availability will improve. So, henceforth state governments will not have to deal with vaccine makers. When there are multiple users and limited resource, allocation decision is a key decision. When state governments were dealing with vaccine makers, vaccine makers had the right/power to choose the allocation. Now, union government will have that right. Since we see vaccination as a key national activity, it is indeed a correct change that democratically elected entity oversees allocation question. So now vaccination policy in India stands in the optimal form after a required course-correction. There is a nationwide free supply of vaccine only by union governm

 The news of private hospital ‘cornering’ 50% of the supply that has been sold in private market will lead to its share of outrage. The news heading is likely to be typically misleading, of 9 private hospitals cornering 50% of the doses, giving impression that out of total supply of vaccines 50% went to these 9 entities. The 50% is of total supply made to private hospitals. I do not find any surprise here. Vaccine makers will prefer large orders over bunch of small orders. It is likely that there will be distributing intermediaries between vaccine manufacturers and entities which conduct the vaccination to provide required large orders. Presence of intermediaries reduce profit of manufacturer as well as end of chain vaccinator. Large private hospital chains can bypass the intermediaries or provide the required large scale if there are no intermediaries. I am in fact surprised that nearly 50% of private market vaccine supply has gone to other than large players. It shows that even lar