We should stop asking our government to be more transparent about decisions related to our health
The government has, quite rightly, refused to be open about how it chose these vaccines, why they were selected over other options, and whether they work as well as their manufacturers claim they do. Representation pic/Getty Images
The government of India has recently had to deal with a significant number of naysayers who claim to have problems with its choice of vaccine. They say there weren’t enough tests conducted to gauge its efficacy and have been asking for answers to a whole lot of annoying questions. The government has, quite rightly, refused to be open about how it chose these vaccines, why they were selected over other options, and whether they work as well as their manufacturers claim they do. It has also, rightly, refused to hold open press conferences to address these concerns. Everyone knows, by now, that press conferences are overrated. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time we had one.
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As anyone who bothers to read this column regularly will testify — my thanks to all five of you readers — I have always been a staunch supporter of secrecy as far as the government is concerned. We have been taught to ask too many questions in the years since the British left our shores, and this habit has now grown to alarming proportions. We ask for information constantly, and I believe this has begun to affect the speed at which wheels turn in our already-slow country.
A few weeks ago, for instance, an RTI plea was filed asking why a television anchor was heard by the courts when a thousand other Indians have yet to be granted that courtesy. I was appalled because the rights of television journalists should always be held above everyone else’s in any country that claims to be a democracy. To not hear their complaints first is to risk being labelled a banana republic. As we all learned by the first week of January, the only banana republic currently masquerading as a democracy is the United States of America. India cannot stoop to that level.
Governments should be answerable to the people, of course, but only to a certain extent. We should learn to trust our politicians more, even the ones accused of terrorism because they have been elected to govern our country. History has repeatedly shown that no one who isn’t qualified to govern is ever elected in India. If a government chooses to withhold information about a vaccine that can save us from a pandemic, it obviously has good reasons for doing so. To assume that its decisions may inadvertently enrich a few companies is wrong. Everything done by the government of India is done for the enrichment of its citizens. After all, millionaire businessmen who become billionaires over a four-year period are citizens too.
What can we possibly gain by finding out if a vaccine works perfectly or not? If it does, it will allow a majority of us to go about our business without masks, much as we have since the pandemic began. If it doesn’t work and we succumb to the virus, how will it matter to those who aren’t around?
As someone who refuses to indulge in conspiracy theories, I believe there are issues related to national security that prevent the government and vaccine manufacturers from being more open about how they test their products.
What if the memes being forwarded on WhatsApp by highly educated supporters of some political parties have been true all along? What if the vaccine is meant to do more than just protect our bodies?
What if it is being used to protect our nation’s borders and arm doctors with information that can cure cancer and male pattern baldness while destroying COVID-19? Won’t we prevent the government from pulling this off by asking it for more tests, then insisting on seeing those results? Why can’t we simply take it at its word when everything else that has been promised to us over the past five years has all come true?
Back when those 2,000-rupee notes were introduced, I dismissed the rumours of chips embedded in their garish surfaces. What if I was wrong? What if they were deliberately meant to look ugly, as if designed by someone who had failed design school, because their true purpose was to fight terrorism and transmit data about illegal activities to a central command centre?
I, for one, intend to take any vaccine recommended to me by the government. I will take it proudly, without asking any uncomfortable or unnecessary questions, and will also request everyone present in the doctor’s office to sing the national anthem with me before the dose is administered. I believe that is what true patriotism is about.
When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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