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Challenges in achieving Herd Immunity through vaccination
Why is it in News?
- Health Secretary said that Government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country.
Details:
- Government stand:
(1) If we vaccinate ‘critical mass of people’ and break the virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate entire country.
- Challenges:
(1) How to choose rational subset of population or ‘critical mass of people’?
(2) According to some experts, if we want to achieve herd immunity, we have to cover 70% of the population.
(3) Risk of transmission is complicated compared to other diseases.
(4) Herd Immunity is based on assumption that spread is even. But in case of SARS-CoV2, spread is uneven.
(5) There is difference between clinical test results and actual effectiveness of the vaccine in the field.
(6) Duration of protection is not known. So there is a challenge of frequency of vaccination.
(7) Selection of high priority groups for vaccination is ethically challenging.