Saving human lives should be at the core of vaccination policy, says scientist

Vaccination policies must prioritize saving human lives over individual choice amid rising vaccine skepticism, asserts scientist Dr. Virander Singh Chauhan.

Given the social media-fuelled distrust of vaccine safety that has led to clashing perceptions about bodily autonomy and the idea of the greater common good, saving human lives should take precedence over other considerations, vaccine scientist and former Chairman of the University Grants Commission Virander Singh Chauhan has said.

In an address on the topic, ‘Vaccines: Science, Access, and the Politics of Protection’ that launched the Pondicherry University Distinguished Lecture Series, Dr. Chauhan highlighted a divergence of individual and State interest, of bodily autonomy versus the greater common good which was an open question for sociologists to debate.

Referring to the modern dilemma over whether getting vaccinated should be a matter of individual choice or be a necessary measure considering the larger social good, he pointed out that in the US, for instance, the vaccination for HBV and measles was now a personal choice. He felt that in debating whether vaccination should be voluntary or mandatory, the decision should be governed by the fundamental question on whether to protect human lives.

He pointed to how social media-driven misinformation and promotion of myth had led large sections of society to reject vaccine science. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was availability of effective and safe vaccines, the amount of misinformation propagated across social media, had led to vaccine hesitancy and a rejection of what many individuals felt was a perceived violation of bodily autonomy. One such myth that resurfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic was about a link between vaccination and autism as a result of the appearance of subsequently retracted bad research paper in a good quality journal. Another common misconception is about vaccine overload whereas the fact was that the amount of material that goes into a vaccine is in such minuscule measure that the immune systems can deal with, he said.

Dr. Chauhan, a Padma awardee and Rhodes Scholar, and former Director of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, believed that science should produce a vaccine against any pathogen that can kill a child anywhere in the world. In a scenario of a rapidly-spreading infection, unlike in the case of a voluntary decision to take or avoid something like the annual flu vaccine, the onus should be on protecting everyone, which is what science, scientists and the State will recommend.

Holding that India’s importance in vaccine development is its ability to manufacture at scale in a cost-effective manner, Dr. Chauhan felt that one of the major achievements in the Indian health system has been the availability of immunisation and the ability to produce vaccines indigenously — in fact, India vaccinates half of Africa.