Rajdeep Sardesai, consulting editor of India Today TV, spoke to Biocon chief executive Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw a day after she urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow companies to give booster doses to their employees.
Biocon boss Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw urges PM Modi to allow companies to give booster doses to employees. (Photo for illustration. Photo credit: PTI)
A day after Biocon chief executive Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw took to Twitter urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the companies to do so give booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to her staff, India Today TV Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai spoke to the entrepreneur about how the rise in Covid cases has led to a growing demand for booster doses and how this has impacted large companies and the economy .
Excerpts from the interview:
Q) They have suggested on Twitter that booster doses must be available to all employers to be administered to employees to avoid work stoppages. Do you think booster doses should be accessible to all ages?
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO and founder of Biocon
Since we no longer have insufficient vaccines, I think we have adequate vaccines that we can actually use to give everyone booster doses. As an employer we know the kind of work stoppage we see with over 300 people testing positive in a company like ours, which you know is a manufacturing and R&D driven company. We have to have people coming to work. When you have such a problem, it disrupts your manufacturing, R&D, and many other supporting functions.
For my part, I would like to give booster doses to all my staff so that we actually prevent flare-ups like the ones we are seeing at the moment.
F) However, the government plans to double-vaccinate the remaining adult population of India. What is your opinion?
The remaining adult population can easily be vaccinated as we have sufficient vaccines to carry out the remaining vaccinations for our population.
I’m not asking the government to give booster doses to everyone, but I believe it should be opened up to the private sector and market to allow for people who want a booster. There is great unrest among the people. While there is a great need to fundamentally allay people’s fears, there is a growing need for employers to conduct their activities. Our economic revival has already been profoundly affected. We need to return to the pace at which we grew. The only safe way to do this is to allow people to get booster shots.
Q) There is no guarantee that vaccination will prevent infection or transmission. There is growing concern that we may not have to limit ourselves to Covishield or Covaxin. Where are the other vaccines like Covovax and Corbevax that could be used for booster doses?
There is enough data to show that there is very good data that your immunity is very significantly improved when combining Covishield with Covovax as opposed to taking three doses of Covishield. I think getting Covovax and Corbevax as a booster dose or precautionary dose makes perfect sense.
Q) Will employers take responsibility for administering booster doses to their workers, which will in some ways widen the net in vaccinating the adult population?
We have already assumed this responsibility with vaccinations and will also assume it when administering booster vaccinations. Many large organizations are certainly willing to do this.
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