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Ad hoc jabs don’t work – vaccinate to prevent deaths & severe disease
Many hailed the decision by the Health Ministry to vaccinate the at-risk over-60 year group of people, while urging that strict implementation of this decision at ground-level is critical.
“The primary aim now should be to reduce deaths and severe disease. The data suggest that a majority of people affected by severe disease are those over-60 years of age and those with co-morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension,” an expert said.
Another said that Sri Lanka should not base its vaccination programme (with limited vaccines) on the idea that vaccination of Grama Sevaka divisions within the current outbreak areas would help reduce transmission, because that is unlikely to be effective.
“When you have an outbreak, you go there and vaccinate there, then when you have an outbreak somewhere else, you go there and vaccinate there. This just does not work for a number of reasons. With test results getting late, the outbreak in one place would have started many weeks before,” was the logical explanation of many.
“Furthermore, when using a vaccine like Sinopharm, you need to have the second dose,for vaccine protection to develop. This takes about 5-6 weeks after the first dose. Thus, this is not a useful strategy to control an ongoing outbreak,” they said, pointing out that there is a need to vaccinate months before.
Some people justify this strategy by using the example of Colombo where case numbers are coming down, an expert said, pointing out that vaccination in Colombo has been going on since February. This is not comparable with trying to vaccinate a Grama Sevaka area with an active outbreak with Sinopharm which will not be effective in reducing transmission for at least 6 weeks.
The expert added that running around vaccinating pockets of people where there are outbreaks is futile. Vaccination should be targeted to reduce deaths and severe disease. This is the approach that has been used by most countries with good vaccination programmes and they are now reaping the benefits of scientific thinking.