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As the government is set to start vaccinating schoolchildren at the end of this month, experts have found it unrealistic since many elderly people still remain out of the Covid vaccination coverage.
Since the country does not have adequate vaccines in stock, they said, the government should first take an effective strategy to vaccinate most of the senior citizens as a top priority because this group is the most vulnerable to the virus infection and death due to their comorbidities and weakened immune systems.
The analysts said the government can launch a special vaccination drive targeting people aged over 60 and above before giving jabs to school students.
They also said schoolchildren, aged 12-17 years, should be given the jabs when there will be adequate vaccine stock in the country since maintaining health safety rules is now enough to keep them safe due to their strong immune protection.
30 lakh Pfizer vaccines for kids
The government has a plan to start inoculating the schoolchildren in Dhaka city from October 30.
According to official data, there are more than one crore schoolchildren, aged 12-17 years, including around 6.15 lakh in the capital.
After vaccinating the schoolchildren in the capital, the government will continue the same campaign in other cities and districts gradually.
According to an official at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the government has a total of 30 lakh Pfizer jabs now in hand to vaccinate the children.
On October 14, 111schoolchildren were given Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in Manikganj as part of a trial run.
Talking to UNB, DGHS spokesman Dr Robed Amin said it is necessary to vaccinate children as their schools have been reopened.
He said the virus may spread among the schoolchildren if they remain out of the vaccination coverage. ”If the kids get infected outside home, they can infect their family members, including the elderly ones. So, children’s vaccination is essential,” Robed noted.
He said they are going to vaccinate the schoolchildren with an aim to stop the source of a further outbreak of the virus.
Unjustified decision
Former Regional Advisor of World Health Organisation (WHO) Muzaherul Huq said it is an unjustified move to vaccinate children and adolescents before bringing most of the elderly people under the vaccination coverage.
“The children have a very strong immune system and they can easily beat the virus. The mortality rate among children in our country is almost zero,” he said.
Mozaherul said children are less susceptible to coronavirus due to their strong natural virus resistance power. “They’ll remain protected if they only maintain health safety
rules. So, it would be unethical to vaccinate children, excluding those who are vulnerable to death from coronavirus infection.”
According to WHO guidelines, he said, the elderly people must be vaccinated first and then those who are suffering from chronic diseases and those who are at risk with the underlying health conditions.
“If there are enough vaccines, the government can give that to everyone at the same time, but we don’t have enough jabs. So, we should gradually vaccinate people from top to bottom based on age.”
Dr AM Zakir Hossain, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said he is also against vaccinating children right now.
“I think we should now prioritize vaccinating elderly persons and those who have comorbidities,” he said.
Dr Zakir said the government should use the vaccines it has now in an effective way to save people who are the most vulnerable to the virus. “We can vaccinate the children when we will have adequate stock of the jabs.”
