Vaccinating India will take at least 2 yrs

New Delhi: India may be preparing sites for phase 3 trials of Oxford University’s vaccine candidate, but medical experts in the country have tempered expectations. Healthcare specialists said that even in a best-case scenario, it would take at least two years to vaccinate 60-70 per cent of the population to ensure ‘herd immunity’.“Going by standard protocols, we need to vaccinate 60-70 per cent of population to get herd immunity. If we get access to a vaccine by December, it would take one-and-a-half years to two years to vaccinate 60 per cent of India’s population,” Dr Sandeep Budhiraja of Max Healthcare, a member of a Delhi government panel on Covid-19, told ET.He added that the country will have to live with the virus in the “same way we have lived with diseases like tuberculosis”.Medical experts pointed out that achieving universal vaccination is already a challenge in India. “According to government reports, despite efforts, the mandatory immunisation of children up to two years has been able to cover a little more than 60 per cent (of the targeted population),” said Dr Aashish Chaudhary of Aakash Healthcare, who runs Covid-dedicated hospitals in Delhi-NCR. 77098390Doctors are also sceptical about how the vaccine would fare in India. Dr K Ganapathy of Apollo Telehealth, who pioneered telemedicine in India and has guided 13 government panels on the subject, said, “The behaviour of the virus has changed from December 2019 to June 2020. There is also a difference between how it has behaved in Spain and Italy, and in India... Our immunity is different. Our genetics is different.”Experts are unsure of the vaccine’s universal applicability. “There are six strains of the virus, and the vaccine will be effective against one strain at a time. It will require modifications for other strains,” said Dr Chaudhary.There are also concerns over ‘rushing’ the trials. “We still don’t have a vaccine for SARS, which struck us 20 years ago. It seems impossible that a double blind randomised controlled study can be completed so quickly,” said Dr Ganapathy.

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