Coronavirus pandemic | Lockdown implementation faulty, was treated as law and order problem: COVID-19 task force

A statement issued by the task force comprising the Indian Association of Epidemiologists, the Indian Public Health Association and the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, said the number of coronavirus cases could have been lower if the migrant labourers were allowed to return to their natives when the virus had not spread so much

Moneycontrol News

June 02, 2020 / 01:17 PM IST

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh during lockdown (Representative Image)

At a time when the nationwide COVID-19 tally has almost reached the 2 lakh-mark, the coronavirus task force, which includes public health experts, remarked that the numbers could have been lower if the migrant labourers were allowed to return to their natives when the virus had not spread so much.

As per a Business Standard report, the joint team of experts also claimed that the opaqueness of data provided by the governments at state and central levels posed “impediments to independent research and appropriate response to the pandemic”.

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It suggested the government to make all data, including test results, available in public platforms, so that the research community can access and analyse them in real-time and provide case-specific solutions.

A statement was issued by the task force comprising the Indian Association of Epidemiologists, the Indian Public Health Association and the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, elaborating this. It stated that the migrants returning home are now spreading the novel coronavirus to distant corners of the country, such as rural and peri-urban areas, where the public healthcare systems are relatively weak.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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