Unplanned vaccination can promote mutant strains: experts in report to PM

Indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains and recommended that there is no need to inoculate those who had documented coronavirus infection.

Written by Payal Banerjee
New Delhi | June 11, 2021 03:22 AM IST

1 min read

Beneficiaries wait to get the Covid-19 vaccine at ESIS Hospital vaccination centre during heavy rain, in Navi Mumbai. (PTI)

A group of public health experts, including doctors from AIIMS and members from the national taskforce on Covid-19, have said that mass, indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains and recommended that there is no need to inoculate those who had documented coronavirus infection.

In their latest report submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the experts from Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE) said vaccinating the vulnerable and those at risk, instead of mass population-wide inoculation including children, should be the aim at present. “Opening all fronts simultaneously will drain human and other resources and would be spreading it too thin to make an impact at the population level.”