Maharashtra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope last week expressed concern about the state’s rapidly depleting Covid-19 vaccine stocks. Soon after, the Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, claimed that this was a “deplorable attempt to distract attention from state’s failures and spread panic among people”. Harsh Vardhan said that the Maharashtra government had displayed a “lackadaisical attitude” that had ”singularly bogged down the entire country’s efforts to fight the virus”.
Discussions on television have contributed to this perception about Opposition-ruled Maharashtra’s Covid-19 efforts, polarising public opionion. Unfortunately, these debates have foregrounded politics and ignored the science of public health.
It is obvious from the numbers that Maharashtra has been one of the worst-affected states in the country. With 5,67,097 active cases as on April 12, the state has the highest number of cases in the country. But absolute numbers do paint a…