Vaccination in chaos; community physicians say

COLOMBO (News1st): The College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka has issued a statement on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the country. The statement observed that too many decision makers and lack of coordination have led to many issues while combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. It added that ad hoc decision making without a clear strategic plan in the vaccination campaign to fulfill individual requirements or respond to critics has created chaos. Accordingly, the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka have observed the following issues in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign so far; 1) Lack of a clear roll-out plan 2) Lack of prioritization of the available limited quantity of vaccines to minimize complications and deaths 3) Inadequate planning leading to demand and supply mismatch 4) Too many irrelevant stakeholders with the vaccine campaign 5) Inadequate risk communication 6) Uncertainty at all levels. The statement pointed out that a deliberate attempt to tarnish the well-praised national public health vaccination programmes has been carried out by certain groups. Accordingly, the medical body expressed great concern about the current process. The statement urged authorities to allow technical experts to handle the vaccination campaign without undue interference.