AIIMS senior epidemiologist Dr Sanjay K. Terming the central government’s decision to vaccinate children with anti-Covid vaccine as ‘unscientific’, Rai said that it will not bring any additional benefit.
- AIIMS doctor told the decision of vaccination of children wrong
- PM Modi had announced the installation of Covaxin only on Saturday night
- AIIMS doctor tagged the PMO and wrote a special thing
New Delhi: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) senior epidemiologist Dr Sanjay K. Terming the central government’s decision to vaccinate children with anti-Covid vaccine as ‘unscientific’, Rai said that it will not bring any additional benefit.
- AIIMS doctor said this
Rai, principal investigator of the Covaxin vaccine trials on adults and children at AIIMS and president of the ‘Indian Public Health Association’, said that data from countries that have started immunizing children should also be analyzed before taking this decision.
- PM had announced
Let us tell you that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in his address to the nation on Saturday night that the Covid-19 vaccination of children between the age of 15 to 18 years would be started from January 3. This step is expected to reduce the worries of school and college going students and their parents and strengthen them in fighting the pandemic and help in bringing education back on track in schools.
- Said this by tweeting
Tagging the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Rai tweeted, ‘I am a big admirer of PM Modi for selfless service to the nation and taking the right decisions at the right time. But I am completely disappointed by his unscientific decision to vaccinate children.
- ‘Vaccination is not preventing corona virus infection’
Clarifying his point of view, he said that the purpose of any decision should be clear. Rai said that the purpose of vaccination is either to prevent corona virus infection or to prevent the severity or deaths. Rai said, ‘But according to the information we have about vaccines, they are unable to bring a significant reduction in cases of infection. In some countries, people are getting infected even after taking a booster dose. Apart from this, even after getting vaccinated in Britain, 50,000 cases of getting infected are being reported daily. Therefore it is proved that vaccination is not preventing corona virus infection, but vaccines are effective in preventing the severity of infection and death.
He said that the mortality rate due to Covid-19 among the vulnerable population is around 1.5%, which means 15,000 deaths per 10 lakh population. Rai said, ‘Through vaccination, we can prevent 80-90% of these deaths, which means 13,000 to 14,000 deaths per million (population) can be prevented.’ Cases of adverse effects after vaccination range from 10 to 15 per 10 lakh population.
- Objectives not being met by vaccination of children
Rai says that, ‘So, if you analyze the risks and benefits of these among adults, it is a big advantage.’ He said that in case of children the severity of infection is very less and as per publicly available data, only 2 deaths per 10 lakh population have been reported. Rai said, “In this section (children), 15,000 (people) are not dying and also taking into account the adverse effects, if you analyze the risks and benefits, based on the available data, the risks outweigh the benefits,” Rai said. The matter comes to the fore. “Both objectives are not being fulfilled by introducing immunization of children,” he said.
Rai said that some countries, including the US, started vaccinating children four-five months ago and the data of these countries should be analyzed before starting the Covid vaccination of children.
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