A big shoutout to Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Oxford for their contribution in making ‘covid19 vaccines’ a reality in the shortest possible time. With claims of 90% effectiveness, now there arises the question of prioritizing the layers of distribution of doses.
The world is in a turmoil due to the tentacles of covid-19 and hence the arrival of the vaccines is a blessing for all of us. In the initial phase, the vaccines will be of limited supply, hence the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)has laid down protocols or guidelines to distribute the first doses of the vaccines. The protocol has been made keeping in mind the following points:
- People with highest risk of Covid-19
- People who are critical to keeping others protected and healthy
- Justice to everyone irrespective of their socio-economic situation
- People of certain racial and ethnic backgrounds who are more prone to the virus attack
The reasons for prioritization have been made transparent so that the public understands the data and evidence and not misunderstand the decision undertaken.
The layers of priority for vaccine distribution are :
- Healthcare workers who have the chances of direct or indirect exposure to patients and infectious materials
- Workers in critical and essential industries
- Adults with high-risk of covid-19 illness due to chronic health conditions like diabetes, cardiac issues, cancer, respiratory disease, asthma etc. irrespective of their age.
- Adults over 65 years of age
Doses and allocation —By the end of 2021, 5.3 bn doses will be able to cover more than one-third of the world’s population. Apart from the three, a vaccine from Moscow could cover another 500 mn people per year outside Russia from next year. Results are yet to be announced for 6 other vaccines like Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi/GSK, CureVac, Sinovac and Sinopharm. If these 6 are included, the total number of doses will rise to 7.4 bn.
Canada leads with a pre-order of 9 doses of vaccines per person followed by USA, UK and Australia.
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| Source- Nature Journal |
Local manufacturing dealers like that of Serum Institute of India in Pune, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has secured >2 bn doses of vaccines for India.
For low and middle -income countries, they depend on COVAX, a joint fund for equitable distribution of Covid19 vaccines based in Geneva, the WHO and CEPI. COVAX has secured 700 mn doses with a target of covering 20% of the population of 189 participating countries.
Last but not the least, patience is the key until we get vaccinated.
That’s all folks!
