The Center says India does not need to administer COVID-19 vaccine injections to the entire population. Rather, inoculating a “critical mass” in priority will help break the chain of transmission. If the previous presumption was that everyone would be released, what does this mean? Mint delves into
What does the government mean by “critical mass”?
The government aims, in the first instance, to vaccinate 250-300 million “priority” people within six months after a vaccine becomes available. They would include health workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedics, front-line workers such as sanitation personnel, security personnel, the elderly, and people with comorbidities. Together they constitute the critical mass. It is important to immunize frontline workers as they may carry the virus due to the nature of their work. This should break the chain of transmission and reduce infection. As for the elderly and those with health problems, they are very vulnerable to infection.
What explains the limited vaccination strategy?
Obviously it has to do with supplies. Several vaccine candidates are being developed at a record pace, but only one of them, Pfizer-BioNtech, has been approved so far and that too in the UK. Others have yet to seek approvals, or those that have are being evaluated by regulators. The Serum Institute of India aims to prepare 300-400 million two-dose Covishield injections by April. That is the one being developed by the University of Oxford. SII is a manufacturing partner. Covishield would cost $ 3 per dose. If the Center acquired it and inoculated the 1.3 billion people, the coups alone would cost 7.8 billion dollars.
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Should other people be concerned in that case?
As long as the virus exists, people should take precautions. Once the government has been able to deliver protective shots to the “critical mass,” which presumably should include the poor, and as supplies increase, others can buy vaccines from pharmacies and get vaccinated. Observing the proper behavior of covid remains key during this fight.
Will it be necessary to inoculate the recovered?
This is being debated nationally and globally. Generally, those who have had a viral infection develop antibodies that fight against its recurrence. But what is debatable is how long those antibodies last. There have been scattered reports of reinfections, suggesting that the antibodies do not last long or provide long-lasting protection against the virus. But these incidents have been few and far between, and it is unlikely that most people who have recovered will become ill again as long as they observe basic precautions like masking.
When can we expect the vaccination campaign to start?
The Serum Institute of India expects to apply to the country’s drug regulator for emergency use authorization for the AstraZeneca vaccine in about two weeks, even as it awaits the completion of its trials by the end of December. Therefore, a vaccination campaign is likely to start only next year, subject to security clearance from the relevant authorities. There are other candidates, such as the one being developed by Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila and Russia’s Sputnik V, but their late-stage testing has only just begun.
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