New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS): As per IANS-CVoter Issues That Dominated India 2021, 1.4 billion vaccine doses against Covid-19 have been administered by December end, arguably the largest and fastest inoculation drive in the history of the world (not counting opaque China).

The IANS-CVoter Covid Tracker consistently showed that almost 98 per cent of eligible Indians were comfortable taking the vaccine; perhaps the lowest hesitancy rate in the world. Back in January 16, 2021, when the vaccine drive was initially launched for health and frontline workers, critics of India scoffed at the suggestion that more than one billion doses could be administered by the end of the year.

While the home grown Covaxin had been approved by domestic regulatory bodies, it was a long way off from getting emergency approval from the World Health Organization. Both domestic as well as global critics slammed the government for "hurrying" the approval given to an "untested" vaccine as if 'Made in India' vaccines were inherently inferior compared to those manufactured by multinational giants like Pfizer and Moderna. No such apprehensions were expressed about the other other vaccine Covishield made by the redoubtable Serum Institute of India as it was an off shoot of a "foreign" vaccine. At the end of the day, both Covaxin and the government have exposed the hollow claims of critics.

Of course there was bungling up at the initial stages, particularly at the time of the second wave when the Central government had succumbed to the demands of states that they be given the right and choice to buy their own vaccines.

This effort by myriad state governments was a spectacular failure and things came back on track once the Centre took complete control once again in June 2021.

There have been many days since then when the number of daily doses administered in India has crossed the 10 million mark, more than twice the population of New Zealand which is yet to be fully vaccinated.