The United Kingdom has administered at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to more than 55 per cent of the country’s population.
An expert on the immunisation advisory committee for the UK government has suggested that moving Covid-19 vaccines from Britain to countries like India could benefit children back home. Speaking at BBC Breakfast, Adam Finn, member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, stressed that the ongoing pandemic is a global crisis and the government needs to “think globally and not just domestically.”
“It may well be better for children in this country if vaccines are used to stop outbreaks like the massive outbreak in India which then get imported into this country and provide a threat to them and their schooling,” he said.
The United Kingdom has administered at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine to more than 55 per cent of the country’s population and on Saturday, the National Health Service (NHS) opened bookings for people aged 32 and 33 to get their first Covid shot. The latest expansion of vaccination eligibility would cover about 1.1 million people, according to the NHS. Finn said that it remains unclear whether children will need vaccination.
“I think we need to wait and see on that. It is not clear at this point whether we will actually need to vaccinate children in order to get that population immunity that we have to get,” he added.
On the other hand, the United States has already started inoculating 12- to 15-year-old children after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency use authorisation to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the age group. The decision, however, drew criticism since vaccine supply in lower- and lower-middle-income countries has not been enough to vaccinate even health care workers.
“In January, I spoke about the potential unfolding of a moral catastrophe. Unfortunately, we are now witnessing this play out,” the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.
