
Indian child dies of rabies; denied vaccine due of lack of biometric Aadhaar ID - firasd
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/agra/rabies-infected-minor-who-died-waiting-for-treatment-denied-vaccine-15-times-at-chc/articleshow/70832635.cms
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joshstrange
Not sure if the title is really truthful, it sounds like the first day they
went that was the reason (lack of Aadhaar ID) but they had it the subsequent
days. The articles hints at that doctors don't like to administer the drug
unless they have a 4-5 cases because the vials go bad but that seems like
speculation on why it wasn't given not a confirmed reason.

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firasd
Fair enough. The state of healthcare in that area for that demographic in
general is to blame (not to mention specific neglect in this case.) But I
think the fact that the first, front-line refusal was based on Aadhaar is
relevant...

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firasd
In a previous HN discussion about 1.5 years ago[1], someone justified Aadhaar
with a 'meta question': "how is a nation state supposed to provide unique
identity authentication". I think about that sometimes, because the way this
ID was being linked to Indian citizens, based on the threat of everything from
our bank accounts to our phones being shut off otherwise, didn't feel very
philosophical and meta. This tragedy with the vaccine refusal is another
example of how normalizing authoritarian ID systems can harm people. (Facial
recognition being used during the protests in Hong Kong is another salient
example.)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16781301](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16781301)

