"AVOID FALSE HOPE ON CORONAVIRUS VACCINE," SAY EXPERTS! - REASONS EXPLAINED HERE

Public health experts and doctors are skeptical about the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in the near future. Doctors from AIIMS and ICMR’s National Task Force on the novel coronavirus have said that an effective vaccine against COVID, “would not be available in the near future" and one should not have false hopes regarding the same. 

A joint statement was submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, experts of Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE). The statement mentions that one might be optimistic but prevention and control strategies to face the worst needs to be in place. 

"Vaccines have no role in current ongoing pandemic control. However, whenever available, the vaccine may play a role in providing personal protection to high-risk individuals like Healthcare workers (HCWs) and elderly with comorbidities," the experts said.

"It must be assumed that an effective vaccine would not be available in near future. We must avoid false sense of hope that this panacea is just around the corner," they added.

They noted that vaccines that have proven to be efficient and safe will be administered according to World Health Organization’s “strategic allocation”.

“Vaccines may theoretically be a useful intervention in future, if and when made available for public health use, the experts said, highlighting many countries, including Russia and China, are fast-tracking the vaccine development which might have concerns of efficacy and safety,” Times Now reported.

Experts have also recommended state and national level sero surveillance surveys to be held in order to monitor the pandemic and strategies as per the requirement on ground. 

The experts also highlighted that the role of frontline community health workers in COVID-19 needs to be acknowledged and they should be given due recognition. 

"This will not only boost the efforts of prevention and control of epidemic in the field but also community at a large will realize the importance of preventive measures and join hands in efforts for with government in prevention and control," they said.