Posted on 24 Nov 2020
Whom should the Government Vaccinate first with COVID-19 Vaccine ?
Doctors & Nurses? / Police ?/ Army ?/ Bureaucrats?
I would say a BIG NO to all the above categories from receiving vaccine first. Because they are the building blocks for any nation in terms of health, law and order, national security and administration. Ideally these all should receive the last WHY ?. Because any major adverse events after receiving the vaccine can destroy any country by destroying the above mentioned pillars. So in my opinion they should receive it in the last stage.
Normally a vaccine can be developed properly with all phases with proper follow up in terms of efficacy and safety only after a period of 6-7 years. Here the world came up with a vaccine in 6-8 months. All are busy in exaggerating the figures about efficacy 90%, 95% etc. Why all the officials forgot the important factor named SAFETY ?
How we can confirm safety?. It can be done only by proper follow-up for many years or at least 12 months. We have experience of many such vaccine in the past which many countries developed in a rush and ended up in getting complications like neurological disorders, autoimmune diseases etc.
Just go back to the history of vaccine complications:
If we do a proper literature review we can find many such unfavourable incidents in the past like
We support vaccine for elderly and vulnerable population because recently in Mumbai reported 24 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks the nerves in COVID-19 recovered patients, in October alone which will be more than the total vaccine related demyelination throughout world in the history.
What I recommend is :
1. First elderly and vulnerable population should receive
2. Spare kids and students for time being. (As they are the future of any country) Not to include the force which runs any country. If at all there is any complication, we should have the force to handle it.
So I request the government of India not to hurry in giving the vaccine first to our key departments especially to Doctors & Nurses, Police, Army and Bureaucrats
With Best Regards
DR.RAJESH RAJAN MD Ph.D FRCP(Edin) FRCP (Glasg) FRCP(Ire) FACC FESC FAHA
PRESIDENT - ASSOCIATION OF MD PHYSICIANS (AMD)
CHAIRMAN - BOARD OF GOVERNORS
INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL CARDIOLOGISTS (IACC)
MANAGING EDITOR - ANNALS OF CLINICAL CARDIOLOGY
CARDIOLOGIST - SABAH AL AHMAD CARDIAC CENTER, KUWAIT