{"id":107920,"date":"2021-05-21T10:33:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T05:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=107920"},"modified":"2021-05-26T12:55:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T07:25:25","slug":"india-needs-an-effective-vaccine-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-needs-an-effective-vaccine-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"India Needs an Effective Vaccine Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The surge in <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/origin-of-covid-19\/\">Covid-19<\/a> cases coupled with a limited supply of vaccines warrants the adoption of an effective <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-new-covid-19-vaccine-policy\/\">vaccine policy<\/a> by the country. The policy should prioritize groups, address hesitancy and formulate a more equitable distribution plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second wave of Covid-19 has shown that the virus is not going away in a short time. It may strike the country multiple times in the coming years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this scenario, the best possible way is to vaccinate the population in order to build effective immunity against the virus and reduce the death tolls. However, there are multiple concerns that demand changes to make vaccination policy effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Concerns regarding vaccine policy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Limited Supply of Vaccines<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The country is facing a shortage of vaccines due to production constraints and import resistances.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Technicalities of vaccine production make it likely that indigenous manufacturers will require 3 to 6 months to increase capacity significantly.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, the novel mRNA vaccine candidate (HGCO19) can\u2019t be developed by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. without support from HDT <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-a-case-of-wholehearted-biotechnology-adoption-on-gm-crop28th-january-2020\/\">Biotech corporation<\/a>, U.S.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, the enhancement of the import of vaccines can take place only after August 2021. It is when wealthy nations would have made substantial progress in the immunization of their populations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Vaccine Hesitancy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: People are showing unwillingness to vaccinate themselves as they doubt the efficacy of vaccines.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the reasons is the halt in the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine (<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/approval-to-covaxin-and-covishield-vaccines-concerns-and-way-forward\/\">Covishield<\/a>) by some countries due to concerns over blood clots, etc. It contributed to doubts about the safety of vaccines in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Target Groups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The limited supply has created a challenge of choosing amongst the multiple groups for vaccination. India needs to choose between the most vulnerable (elders, comorbidities patients) and the most valuable (working population). The former will reduce the death toll and the latter would be more beneficial for economic revival.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Distribution Concerns<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The current policy has allowed vaccination for all adults however it does not tell the order of distribution.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state governments are now compelled to bear all the costs of vaccination. This may give an advantage to wealthier states over poor states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, it allows market forces to decide on vaccine access for a substantial part of the population and calls for using technology (Co win portal) to get vaccinated.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has allowed the least vulnerable to get vaccinated early as they possess more resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The central government should pioneer in both &#8211; enhancing the supply and formulating a policy to ensure equitable access to vaccines.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should avoid transferring expenses to State governments and shouldn\u2019t allow the private sector to decide vaccine access.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The country should take the help of<\/span><b> behavioral scientists <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to combat vaccine hesitancy and ensure that the population is vaccinated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The target groups must be selected on the basis of vulnerability. However, if this is impractical, then some combination of the vulnerable and working population should be chosen. This should be worked out using data and the basis of the decision should be made public.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GD68JIE7R.1&amp;imageview=0\">The Hindu <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0The surge in Covid-19 cases coupled with a limited supply of vaccines warrants the adoption of an effective vaccine policy by the country. The policy should prioritize groups, address hesitancy and formulate a more equitable distribution plan. Background: The second wave of Covid-19 has shown that the virus is not going away in a short&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-needs-an-effective-vaccine-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India Needs an Effective Vaccine Policy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1289,1472],"class_list":["post-107920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-soc_0","tag-vaccine_related_issues","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704798651},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}