A group of public health experts, including doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and members of the coronavirus National Ta...
A group of public health experts, including doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and members of the coronavirus National Task Force, have warned that mass, indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains, PTI reported on Thursday.
In their latest report submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, experts from Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, and Indian Association of Epidemiologists suggested that vaccinating those vulnerable and at risk, instead of inoculating mass population including children, should be the aim at present.
“The present situation of the pandemic in the country demands that we should be guided by the logistics and epidemiological data to prioritise vaccination rather than opening vaccination for all age groups at this stage,” the experts said. “Opening all fronts simultaneously will drain human and other resources and would be spreading it too thin to make an impact at the population level.”
They added that vaccinating young adults and children was not supported by evidence and would not be cost effective. “Given the rapid transmission of infection in various parts of the country, it is unlikely that mass vaccination of all adults will catch up with the pace of natural infection among our young population,”...
