Now, smart Covid-19 vaccination strategy to check spread

The Union Health Ministry has prepared a “smart vaccination strategy” under which only a select group of people may be given the Covid-19 vaccination with the aim of breaking the chain of transmission, leaving out the vast majority.

The strategy, according to the experts, is distinctly different from the previous plan of protecting every individual through universal Covid-19 vaccination as highlighted even by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a review meeting in June.

Instead, the smart vaccination plan focuses on the public health goal of curbing the epidemic by breaking the chain of transmission through targeted vaccination even though experts have doubts about the merits of adopting such a strategy. Chairing a high-level meeting on June 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that the Covid-19 vaccination must be affordable and universal and no person in the country should be left behind in the process.

Smaller population

But the strategy drawn by health officials a few months down the line seeks to do exactly that — leaving out the majority and targeting a smaller population. According to the smart vaccination strategy — shared recently with a panel of lawmakers — the population has been divided into three groups – core, bridge and the general population.

Once the core group is vaccinated, there is less chance of spread of the disease and there would not be a requirement for vaccination of the whole population of the country.

“With all preventive measures such as wearing masks, the pandemic can be contained without vaccinating the entire population,” Balram Bhargava, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research told the lawmakers.

The ICMR chief, however, did not elaborate on how the members of the core or bridge group would be identified as per the scheme devised by the national expert group of vaccination. Since July –- a month after the Prime Minister spoke about universal vaccination –- the Union government began talking about targeted vaccination by prioritising groups like doctors and healthcare workers, front line staff and those who are vulnerable.

As the states were asked to draw up their own priority list, the Union Health Ministry in October said it wanted to vaccinate 250 million people from such vulnerable groups by July 2021. But the smart vaccination strategy was never discussed in the public domain.

Asserting that targeted vaccination may be the way forward for a resource-poor country like India, experts questioned the basic assumption underlying the strategy. “There is no good evidence to demonstrate that such a vaccination prioritisation will substantially reduce the speed of transmission and or the occurrence of outbreaks,” senior scientist Satyajit Rath, a visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research told DH.

“Worryingly, the government’s withdrawal from a mass vaccination scheme may introduce inequality as the vaccine available in the private market may be affordable only to the rich,” pointed out a senior researcher on medical ethics.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its report said, “Smart vaccination may be used as an immediate strategy but subsequently the whole population should be vaccinated.”