Five past Coronavirus vaccine drives and how they worked
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Last Updated: Feb 01, 2021, 06:17 AM IST
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Synopsis
Scientists developed vaccines less than a year after COVID-19 was identified, a reflection of remarkable progress in vaccine technology. But progress in vaccine distribution is another story.
AP
Some answers can be found in the successes and failures of vaccine drives over the past two centuries.
Scientists developed vaccines less than a year after COVID-19 was identified, a reflection of remarkable progress in vaccine technology. But progress in vaccine distribution is another story.
Questions that arose in vaccine rollouts decades ago are still debated today. How should local and federal authorities coordinate? Who should get vaccinated first? What should officials do about resistance in communities? Should the hardest-hit places be prioritized? Who should pay?
State and local health officials were in charge of the rollout to children, who were most at risk of contracting the disease.
“Young, African-American kids were getting hit, but they were not at the top of the priority list because of the social conditions at the time,” said Dr. René F. Najera, editor of the History of Vaccines project at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Noting that it was difficult for parents in working-class jobs to take off time to stand in line with children at clinics, Dr. Najera said, “You see this over and over again, history kind of repeats itself.”