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

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.