Hasan Zaidi: We even exported vaccines when we didn’t have enough for our own

Hasan Zaidi agrees with the government decision to do the vaccination process by following those who are more at risk, that is frontline workers, followed by the older generation and then lowering the age limit. However, the actor feels that the arrangements could have been done in a better way.

 

“It has been alright in some states, because many people abided and it was really pathetic in a lot more in other states where vaccines got wasted too. Imagine now we don’t have enough to give. The problem in our country is the disparity between the centre and the states, also we tend to give more importance to fake news. All the states have their own procedures, guidelines. This should have been one time where all sorts of politics should have been kept aside and uniform SOPs should have been established. But obviously our government was busy with something else, trying to win elections and not really thinking about it as hard as they should have and see what crisis we are facing now. We even exported vaccines when we didn’t have enough for our own,” says the actor, who is yet to take his first dose.

Hasan adds further that the pandemic has made us realise the importance of our family, health (both mental and physical), sanitisation and how much we need to introspect, be compassionate and selfless. He also talks about how the global economic meltdown due to the crisis has made living all the more difficult.  

“While some of us have our support system, a lot of us have dug into our savings. It is worst for daily wage earners, small businesses, carpenters, farmers, wholesalers etc. Last year suddenly we faced the lockdown without any provision or any system in place. It sometimes feels bad that there are many politicians who have criminal records and some are not even educated. They are running our country. On a larger level we, commoners, are to blame. If we don’t try and get the change that we want to see then such a difficult scenario will always remain,” he adds.

He continues, “Economy is crashing but do we have a proper plan in place as to how we combat such a situation. Where is our money that should be used for our betterment? And as I said, we did not have to distribute the vaccines all over the world when we needed it so much. If we can’t save ourselves how can we help the rest of the world,” he ends with a question.