Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper. India could have lessened its Covid-19 disaster if the government had not been so determined to manage the procurement and distribution of vaccines centrally, says Mohammed Akoojee, CEO of Imperial Logistics. The fact that the country is in the grip of a severe third wave is an added tragedy, considering one of the vaccines is manufactured there, he says. But the process has now been opened up to the private sector, a fact that warrants the attention of governments around the world. “Is centralised procurement and distribution really the right way to go? The pace at which we are vaccinating people in South Africa is not where it should be – just 340,000 medical professionals have been vaccinated, out of a possible 1.5 million. And we need to cover 65% of the population? Do the maths. We need to vaccinate 250,000 people a day, as they did in the US and UK.”