100cr jabs: Modi lauds people's trust, says a trip from "anxiety to assurance"

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that India's vaccination drive was a journey from "anxiety to assurance" and made the country emerge stronger. Despite many efforts to create mistrust and panic, its success was out of people's trust in the vaccines, Modi said in a piece he wrote after the day India's cumulative vaccine jabs crossed the landmark of 100 crores.

Many among us trust foreign brands for everyday necessities, but when it came to the Covid-19 vaccine, people of India unanimously trusted 'Made in India' vaccines, which was a significant paradigm shift, Modi said. Many doubted the success of the vaccine drive and estimated 3-4 years for India to work it. Some said Indians wouldn't come forward to take the vaccine and predicted mismanagement and chaos in the programme, the PM claimed. He expressed hope that the success of the vaccination drive will further spur India's youth, innovators and government at all levels.

He further said that the drive reached the 100 crore milestone in nine months despite many doubting India's capabilities. He asserted that his government ensured no "VIP culture" in the vaccination drive, just like in the government's other schemes. He added that the government ensured that the vaccine drive was equitable, scalable, trackable, and transparent, and there was no scope for favouritism or jumping the queue. A poor worker could have taken the first dose in his village and the second one at the city where he works after the time interval. He alleged that there was hardly such efforts before, not only in India but also in the world.

He noted that humanity was dealing with such a pandemic after 100 years. When the virus broke out in the country, the situation was unpredictable, like an invisible enemy mutating rapidly, but the nation emerged stronger because of the world's largest vaccination drive it had. When everyone takes ownership, nothing is impossible, the PM wrote. He added that India's healthcare workers traversed many difficult geographies to vaccinate people while the country's youth, social workers, social and religious leaders did their work and all deserve credit. Their work helped India face minimal vaccine hesitancy compared to even developed nations, Modi said.