Vaccines for under-aged amid shortage!

BHUBANESWAR: At a time when 45 plus age group struggles to get jabs due to shortage of vaccines, Odisha government’s decision to vaccinate staff, aged below 45 years, of different departments by superseding the Centre’s priority section first strategy has raised eyebrows.

Long queues of regular and contractual employees of 25 years to 44 years of various departments were witnessed before the vaccination centres in the city after the Health and Family Welfare department recently wrote to all departments to get their staff deployed or to be engaged in management of Covid-19 inoculation.

Sources said apart from the employees of the departments, their family members and many outside consultants who are on contract, are also getting jabbed on the pretext of the letter from the Health department.

People, who are deprived of vaccines, alleged the letter is just an alibi to vaccinate government employees - be it regular or contractual and their family members when uncertainty over inoculation of 18 years plus still looms large due to shortage of required number of vaccine doses.  

“How can the government think of deploying employees without proper vaccination? Can anybody develop antibodies that are enough to fight off Covid-19 only a few days after the first dose? Antibodies are considered to begin to  antibodies develop only three weeks after the second dose. Until then the beneficiaries are vulnerable to infection,” said a health expert.

Health authorities refuted the allegation that under-aged family members of the staff are getting the jabs. Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said the departments were asked to allow their staff for vaccination only if they are deployed for management of Covid-19.