World gets its first Covid-19 vaccine. Does everyone need to get a shot?

The UK will start vaccinating its citizens from next week after becoming the first country to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech. Indians will to wait a little longer. But does everyone need to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot?

This file photo shows the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine being injected to the first person enrolled for the clinical trial. In a first, the UK has granted approval for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the country. (Photo: PTI)

Prabhash K Dutta, India Today, New Delhi, December 2, 2020 : The first approval for a Covid-19 vaccine has come -- for a jab developed by Pfizer-BioNTech. The approval has come from the United Kingdom, which will start vaccinating its people from next week. India may still have to wait a little longer to gets its first approved vaccine -- either the one being developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and tested by the Serum Institute of India (SII) or the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V being tested in India by Dr Reddy's Lab.

Now that the Covid-19 vaccine has arrived, in a record time -- bettering the previous best of four years' time taken for an anti-mumps vaccine -- the question being asked is: Does everybody need to be vaccinated?

At the press briefing on Tuesday, ICMR chief Dr Balram Bhargava said, "If we are able to vaccinate a critical mass of people and break the virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population."

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "The government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country." This effectively takes care of the political statements given by some political parties about everyone getting the vaccine for free in India.

But does everybody need a Covid-19 vaccine to ward off the coronavirus danger?

VACCINE NOT NEEDED: EX-PFIZER EXPERT

Only a few days ago, scientist Dr Michael Yeadon, the former vice-president of Pfizer pharmaceutical, whose vaccine candidate has become the first vaccine to get approval, said there is no need for any vaccine to bring Covid-19 pandemic to an end.

Writing for Lockdown Sceptics, Yeadon said, "There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic. I've never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines."

"You do not vaccinate people who aren't at risk from a disease. You also don't set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn't been extensively tested on human subjects," said Yeadon.

BUT IS THERE A PLAN TO VACCINATE ALL?

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and countries such as the US, the UK, Japan, and Canada have already made plans to vaccinate their entire population. They have placed pre-release orders for enough doses of Covid-19 vaccines to cover their entire populations.

The Covax plan of the WHO, the vaccine alliance Gavi, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) aims for vaccination of up to 20 per cent of populations in over 90 member-countries. They have planned to do it in phases -- ensuring three per cent vaccination in each country first and then scaling it up to 20 per cent before further doses are given to any member-country.

The worst-affected countries have plans for vaccine rationing ready but the question about universal, compulsory vaccination remains unanswered. This is tricky question for governments as universal vaccination means they have to spend a lot of money on procurement, distribution, and administration of the shots to each individual in a time-bound manner.

Not going for universal vaccination may open up the risk of a re-emergence of Covid-19 that early this year forced the world into phases of lockdowns. This cost the world its economic growth. India bore the most serious brunt as it imposed the severest lockdown.

HOW SUCCESSFUL HAVE BEEN OUR VACCINES?

The problem is vaccination can only happen in phases, spread over many months in a country like India. Another issue is that it not clearly known for how long a person who receives a vaccine will be protected from a fresh novel coronavirus infection.

Historically, vaccines have taken years to develop and the long period gives a somewhat guaranteed protection against the targeted disease. One can gauge the success rate of vaccines in eradicating a disease from the fact that only one disease has been completely eradicated from the world till date -- smallpox -- and it took nearly 200 years for the vaccine to do it.

India has succeeded in eliminating polio through vaccination. However, some reports say India still reported around 50 cases of polio in 2019. In any case, the polio virus lives in the world and is not eradicated. Same is the case with tetanus, measles, mumps and even tuberculosis (TB). Flu vaccines are effective for a season only. Humans live with all these diseases despite having had vaccines against them for several years.

CAN VACCINATION BE MANDATORY?

Moreover, most vaccines in India and rest of the world are aimed at children and young adults. Adult vaccine regimes are uncommon. Given that the governments across the world have been hesitant in giving safety approvals to vaccine candidates and that the duration of protection also remains uncertain, there would be people who may not like to rush to get vaccinated.

There have not been many examples of mandatory vaccination failing which a punishment or penalty is imposed. One example can be found in Massachusetts in the US in 1901, when the government made it compulsory for every adult above 21 years of age to get vaccinated against smallpox. Refusal to get the vaccine was penalised with a fine of $5. The programme succeeded, though the US recorded its last smallpox outbreak only in 1949. But will the same happen with Covid-19 in a world dominated by social media and chants of freedom of choice?

WILL FACE MASK GO AWAY?

And, finally, will those getting the vaccine still need to wear a mask and follow other Covid-19 protocols?

The probable answer is, "Yes". The reason is that while it is expected that Covid-19 vaccines will prevent a person from getting ill, there's not enough evidence yet to suggest that the same person will not be a "coronavirus carrier" and transmit the disease to an unvaccinated person. This makes it necessary to wear the face mask, not necessarily for oneself but for the well-being of the larger society.