New Delhi: The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) member Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil said that there is no need to vaccinate children against Covid-19 as the data shows no urgency. The member of the Narendra Modi government’s panel on vaccination said that the central government has been informed that ‘children are doing fine and we should not be vaccinating children now’.
According to Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil, a professor at Christian Medical College in Vellore and known as one of the country’s leading epidemiologists, the data driving the decision to not vaccinate children on an urgent basis shows no significant mortality among children due to Covid-19. ‘India has not witnessed a single death among children below 12 years of age due to Covid-19. We have registered deaths among children due to cancer, leukaemia and other diseases where children tested positive, but those deaths cannot be attributed to Covid-19’, Muliyil was quoted by News 18.
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Earlier, in October, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had told senior officials there should be no rush in clearing vaccines for children or starting the drive. The NTAGI was also asked to take a holistic view before submitting the final plan to start the drive as the government has been exercising extraordinary caution before it finally kick-starts Covid-19 vaccination drive for children in India. Mandaviya had earlier asked officers to study reasons behind the slow pace of vaccine rollout for children in developed nations, but have not made an official statement so far on the decision.
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