For young, healthy people, the wait for vaccines could be prolonged: WHO chief scientist

It could be as long as 2022 before the younger sub-sections get a hold of the vaccine

A logo is pictured outside a building of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland | Reuters A logo is pictured outside a building of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland | Reuters

Even if the vaccine came out on the first of January 2021, its delivery could be prolonged for younger, healthier citizens across the world. World Health Organisation chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, at an online event of WHO, said that the use of the vaccine should be prioritised for high-risk sub-sections of the population like healthcare workers, frontline workers, and the elderly. 

"People tend to think, ah, on the first of January or the first of April, I'm going to get a vaccine and then things will be back to normal," Swaminathan said, according to The Washington Post. "It's not going to work like that. There will be a lot of guidance coming out, but I think an average person, a healthy, young person, might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine."

In India, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that prioritisation of groups for COVID-19 vaccine will be based on two key considerations—occupational hazard and risk of exposure to infection, and the risk of developing severe disease and increased mortality. On the issue of how the government plans to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine, he said that it is anticipated that supplies of vaccines would be limited in the beginning. “In a huge country like India, it is critical to prioritise vaccine delivery based on various factors such as risk of exposure, comorbidity among various population groups, the mortality rate among COVID-19 cases, and several others," the minister said.

Across the world, younger and healthier sections of the population have found themselves relatively shielded from the infection. In India, both cases and deaths due to the disease have been more heavily concentrated in the 40-69 year age group. Proportion of deaths to the number of infected people, known as the case-fatality ratio (CFR), spanned 0.05 per cent at ages 5-17 years to 16.6 per cent at ages exceeding 85. 

He had said that the country is expected to have a COVID-19 vaccine in a few months, and that it should be in the process of delivery in the next six months. "We are very much into the vaccine development process...in the next few months at the most we should have a vaccine and in the next six months we should be in the process of delivering the vaccine to the people of India," he said. 

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