CEO, Serum Institute of India
How I dealt with threats, politics, and furore around COVID-19 vaccine: Adar Poonawalla
At the height of the pandemic, the Poonawallas had wagered a large amount of their own capital towards developing a COVID-19 vaccine. At the same time, the crisis was becoming increasingly politicised, both in India and abroad, resulting in constant threats, uproar and criticism against the vaccine makers.
About Adar Poonawalla
At the Screen Awards, Adar Poonawalla said, "It’s a new industry for me," referring to his entry into entertainment. He thanked the event organizers, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and the cast and crew of his film, stating that all credit for the award goes to them. Poonawalla described the film as "very special," saying it discusses acceptance and that through it he was able to accept himself. He also recited a poem about his personal journey, mentioning his father's dream for him to become an actor and his own goal of winning an Oscar in the future. His speech was described as having gone viral for its humility and authenticity.
Transcript (4 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:00
You spoke about the criticisms during the time. You were subjected to quite a bit of setbacks. There was a fire accident in the campus, a couple of floors were destroyed. So it wasn't really a very easy ride, was it? It wasn't. Tell me one thing: how did you cope? How did you face the situation? There were flip-flops when it came to distribution, when it came to pricing, vaccine shortage, blackmails.
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Adar Poonawalla0:28
Well, I'll tell you, I coped with it, to answer your question, in short, compartmentalization. What I would do is on a daily basis only look at and think about what I have to sort out today. If I kept thinking about everything, then I was on the verge of having a meltdown, and that's the way I coped, both mentally and physically, to just get on with delivering enough vaccines, responding to some of the political and media sort of distortions, I would say in facts and information, that happened sadly due to various different reasons. And look, it was a global crisis, and then there was an India crisis, and then there was politicization of that crisis both globally and in India. The government of India did the best they could, I think better than any other country, I must say that, and I truly mean it, given the situation that we were going through. And look, there were many expectations to manage from the public, opposition parties, the media, and foreign media, who felt it was their sort of, I don't know, right or need to sort of highlight things out of context just to create a bit of a story. But then even they realized and they've now applauded the way India has handled things. So all that was happening all at the same time, so I think it looked and felt very cluttered and confusing and stressful, which it was. But I think in about two or three months all that sort of subsided once the supplies picked up and everyone else was getting the vaccine. Coverage was going up. Don't forget, earlier on in India, despite having enough vaccine, there weren't many people to take it. When the second wave hit, the entire country wanted to get the vaccine, so obviously at that time someone's going to have to wait. It's like a queue. Someone has to get it first before you, and then you can get it first come, first serve or whatever. So that was particularly a challenging period in the months of May, June, April, May, June, then by July, August, it all sort of, everyone realized that look, they have to wait and take it, and they will get it, and they did get it. They got two doses, even the third dose has been offered by the government.
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Interviewer3:00
I remember sometime around May, June 2021, I think a week or two you went silent, no tweets, no updates. And then I think that was best, no? Because why keep commenting on something?
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Adar Poonawalla3:08
See, the only time I would speak or share information on Twitter or wherever else was when it was necessary, when it was necessary to perhaps clarify something that needed to be clarified, or to share information or updates. I tried to be as responsible and careful. The threats would have been very distressing, no? That I would want to comment on anything. I think that was something best left to be.