First in line for vaccine should be those over 65, not frontline workers

The govt must retain, in this last lap, a focus on evidence-based policy making, rather than attempting to appease special interest constituencies of one sort or another

It might appear that the worst of the pandemic is over as far as India is concerned. The number of recorded cases in the country crossed 10 million in the past few days, but the growth rate in cases has never returned to the high that it reached in September. In spite of another peak in November, following the festive season, the broad trend for new infections has been downwards.

Meanwhile, by all accounts, we are at most a few weeks out from the Indian regulators permitting emergency use of one or more vaccines. The early front-runner is, of course,