Letter.

 Letter Published in The National UAE on 18Mar 21 A dangerous shortage of materials for vaccinesThe danger posed by delays in the vaccine supply chainI write in reference to Ramola Talwar Badam’s article Serum Institute chief sounds alarm over vaccine raw materials shortage (March 16): as a former pharmaceutical worker myself, I feel strongly about this issue. The chief of India’s Serum Institute has good reason to worry. If stocks are jeopardised, there are fears that half the world’s population will not be vaccinated until as late as 2022. A US export ban on raw materials makes this unpleasant possibility more likely. Hopefully the new administration will realise this and relax its measures in the coming days.K Ragavan, Bengaluru