Extraordinary interview by @adarpoonawalla , owner of the world’s largest vaccine maker, The Serum Institute in India. https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1388398227104411651
Declines invitation to apportion blame. “If I give you the right answer, or any answer, my head would be chopped off ... I can’t comment on the elections or Kumbh Mela. It’s too sensitive,” he says adding: “I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad”
The calls come from some of the most powerful men. They come from the chief ministers of Indian states, heads of business conglomerates and others demanding instant supplies of Covishield, as the AstraZeneca vaccine is known in India. “ ‘Threats’ is an understatement,” he says.
The calls, and throngs of desperate people who gather outside the Serum Institute’s 100-acre, state-of-the-art campus in Pune, 90miles east of Mumbai, explain why Poonawalla has been offered a government security detail, and why the campus now has 24/7 police protection.
They are partly why Poonawalla flew to London to join his wife and two children hours before Britain banned travellers from India eight days ago. “I’m staying here an extended time because I don’t want to go back to that situation,” he says.
He is also there on business. He says he is planning to start vaccine production in countries outside India. Would that include Britain? “There’s going to be an announcement in the next few days,” he replies coyly.
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