India's national government has inappropriately prioritised people for covid-19 vaccination
Current approach is causing huge numbers of avertable deaths, warn experts
2021-06-10
(Press-News.org) India's national government has inappropriately prioritised people for covid-19 vaccination
Current approach is causing huge numbers of avertable deaths, warn experts
India's national government has inappropriately prioritised people for covid-19 vaccination, argue doctors and researchers in The BMJ today.
Peter Lloyd-Sherlock and colleagues warn that the government's current approach to vaccination - focusing on younger age groups - "is causing huge numbers of avertable deaths and is deeply inequitable."
From 3 May to 5 June 2021, more first doses were administered to people under 45 than over 60, even though at least 77 million people aged 60 remain unvaccinated, they say.
As such, they urge the government to take a more targeted approach and reallocate available doses to older people, especially in more deprived areas.
They explain that in January 2021, India's vaccination programme began with health professionals and "frontline workers." In March, it was extended to people aged 60 or over and those aged 45 or over with comorbidities, and in April to anyone aged 45 or over. From 1 May, vaccine entitlement was extended to all people aged 18 or over, although people under 45 had to pay.
Earlier this week, the government announced that vaccines would now also be free for people aged 18-45, which the authors suggest is likely to increase the focus of vaccination on people in this age group, rather than those aged 45 or over.
In practice, they say access to covid-19 vaccination is mainly determined by socioeconomic status, with very low coverage in rural areas and among disadvantaged urban populations.
As a result, Indians of all ages are increasingly resorting to private purchases, and the country's minimal pension system makes this especially unaffordable for older people.
What's more, no special provision has been made to facilitate vaccine access for adults with impaired mobility, they add, and older people tend to be less familiar with the digital technology required to make a booking.
They note that some Indian states have now reallocated available doses to older people and they urge the national government to do the same until all older people in India have received at least one dose.
"Its current approach to vaccination is causing huge numbers of avertable deaths and is deeply inequitable, both between age groups and within them," they conclude.
[Ends]
Externally peer reviewed? No
Evidence type: Letter; Opinion
Subject: Covid-19 vaccination in India
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-06-10
HOUSTON -- Results from the multi-cohort Phase I/II ARROW clinical trial, conducted by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers, showed that a once-daily dose of pralsetinib, a highly selective RET inhibitor, was safe and effective in treating patients with advanced RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and RET-altered thyroid cancer. The findings for each cohort were published today in The Lancet Oncology and The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, respectively.
"Targeted therapies have dramatically improved care for patients with NSCLC and thyroid cancer driven by oncogenes, and the rapid clinical translation of selective RET inhibitor ...
2021-06-10
The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists at LMU have calculated that such systems could harbor sufficient water to make life possible - and sustain it.
Water - in liquid form - is the elixir of life. It made life possible on Earth and is indispensable for the continuing existence of living systems on the planet. This explains why scientists are constantly on the lookout for evidence of water on other solid bodies in the Universe. Up to now, however, the existence of liquid water on planets other than Earth has not been directly proven. However, ...
2021-06-10
The increased use of ridesharing apps was linked to a decrease in motor vehicle collisions and impaired driving convictions in Houston, according to published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
The findings were published today in JAMA Surgery.
Christopher Conner, MD, PhD, neurosurgery resident in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and the study's lead author, said the research is timely as more individuals are utilizing ridesharing apps.
"Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death and disability among young people, so anything we can do to reduce those incidents ...
2021-06-10
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men, according to the American Cancer Society. It's also one of the trickiest cancers to diagnose and treat.
But new research from the University of Georgia has identified a protein that appears to prevent the cancer from spreading to and colonizing the bone, providing a new target for future therapeutics.
"Unfortunately, prostate cancer that has spread to the bone is very aggressive, often lethal and very difficult to treat," said Brian Cummings, corresponding author of the study and head of the College of Pharmacy's pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences department. "Even in cases of successful treatment, the patient's quality of life is severely lessened due to bone loss."
Prostate cancer that hasn't spread beyond nearby ...
2021-06-10
There are still many unsolved mysteries about the human brain and its development. Now, a novel study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry sheds new light on the neurobiological origins of our individual traits.
Functional connectivity is the coordinated activity - activation or deactivation - through time between separate brain regions, regardless of their physical closeness or the type of neural connections between them. Changes in functional connectivity can be a sign of mental health disorders such as depression, eating disorders, and schizophrenia, and are thought to have developmental origins.
We know that mental health is characterized by three functional brain networks. The first is hypoconnectivity ...
2021-06-10
People who have a high sensation-seeking personality trait may be more likely to develop an addiction to cocaine, according to a Rutgers study.
"Although many people try illicit drugs like cocaine or heroin, only a small proportion develop an addiction," said lead author Morgan James, a member of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "The interaction found between sensation-seeking traits and the drug-taking experience show that predisposition to addiction has a genetic basis, and that this interacts with environmental factors such as patterns of drug use. The sensation-seeking trait was predictive of rats' likelihood to exhibit stronger ...
2021-06-10
For older adults, participating in social activities can protect against physical and mental signs of aging, but it may also pose risks, especially for women.
A new analysis of national data led by UC San Francisco found that older women who were broadly engaged in social activities before the COVID pandemic had 76 percent higher odds of experiencing emotional abuse or mistreatment than women who were less engaged.
The paper is published June 9, 2021 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
"Given widespread discussion about the negative effects of social isolation of ...
2021-06-10
Research from the University of Washington shows that endangered blue whales are present and singing off the southwest coast of India. The results suggest that conservation measures should include this region, which is considering expanding tourism.
Analysis of recordings from late 2018 to early 2020 in Lakshadweep, an archipelago of 36 low-lying islands west of the Indian state of Kerala, detected whales with a peak activity in April and May.
The study was published in May in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
"The presence of blue whales in Indian waters is well known from several strandings and some live sightings of blue whales," said lead author Divya Panicker, a ...
2021-06-10
A new study conducted by the researchers at the University of Liverpool reveals how the ancient photosynthetic organisms - cyanobacteria - evolve their photosynthetic machinery and organise their photosynthetic membrane architecture for the efficient capture of solar light and energy transduction.
Oxygenic photosynthesis, carried out by plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, produces energy and oxygen for life on Earth and is arguably the most important biological process. Cyanobacteria are among the earliest phototrophs that can perform oxygenic photosynthesis and make significant contributions to the Earth's atmosphere and primary production.
Light-dependent photosynthetic reactions are performed by a set of photosynthetic ...
2021-06-10
Laser-produced high energy density plasmas, akin to those found in stars, nuclear explosions, and the core of giant planets, may be the most extreme state of matter created on Earth. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), building on nearly a decade of collaboration with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), have designed a novel X-ray crystal spectrometer to provide high-resolution measurements of a challenging feature of NIF-produced HED plasmas.
Most powerful lasers
The ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] India's national government has inappropriately prioritised people for covid-19 vaccination
Current approach is causing huge numbers of avertable deaths, warn experts
