Inculcating confidence amongst our countrymen to counter “Vaccination Hesitancy”
India is on a roller coaster ride in avoiding a second wave of the infectious coronavirus that is rampaging through Europe and the US. However, with the rolling out of the COVID-19 vaccines there is a hope to end the pandemic sooner than later.
India has already rolled out a biggest coronavirus vaccination drive using two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, with priority to be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers. Covishield has been developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
To encourage the biggest vaccination drive in India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman provided Rs 35,000 crore towards COVID-19 vaccination in 2021-22 fiscal.
WHO says vaccination is a safe and effective way to prevent COVID 19 and save lives. It is very important that people get vaccinated and spread the awareness about its safety. This will not only save the Individuals life but also protect others in the community from the deadly virus.
Vaccination for COVID-19 is voluntary. However, it is advisable to receive the complete schedule of COVID-19 vaccine for protecting one-self against this disease and also to limit the spread of this disease to the close contacts including family members, friends, relatives and co-workers
“Supporting India’s biggest vaccination drive and spreading the message to vaccinate for everyone’s safety” says Dr Swadeep Srivastava (Founder Heal Foundation). He urged the people to VACCINATE WITH CONFIDENCE and avoid spreading false rumours around the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
Acceptance of the vaccine is an outcome behaviour which can be influenced by a wide array of factors. The acceptance rate of the vaccine in the Indian population will not be same among the masses. Identifying the barriers in vaccination acceptance and other appropriate health interventions is necessary to deploy a safe and trusted vaccination successfully.
The rapid development of coronavirus vaccines has only increased panic and fears among the masses. WhatsApp messages or Facebook/Twitter timeline are filled with rumours, unscientific views and infodemic and the people are more likely to see negative messages about vaccines on social media than positive ones.
Disinformation around vaccines can endanger lives. Any vaccine uses your body’s natural defences to build resistance to specific infections by training your immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when it’s exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only dead or weakened forms of germs, they do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications. The immune system remembers the disease and if you are then exposed to the germ in the future, your immune system can quickly destroy it before you become unwell.