Chennai: A ‘joint task force’ of eminent public health experts has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it must be assumed that an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus would not be available in the near future.
They also said that any false sense of hope that this panacea is just around the corner must be avoided.
“Vaccines do not have any role in current ongoing coronavirus pandemic control in India. 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 said.
The joint statement was signed by experts of the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM), and Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE).
“Vaccines with proven efficacy and safety, as and when available, should be administered according to the WHO’s ‘strategic allocation’ approach or a multi-tiered risk-based approach,” they said.
They also said “lockdown as a strategy for control should be discontinued.”