Hyderabad: Vaccine hesitancy is as high as 74.53 per cent in India and it is the young from lower socio-economic class that are not willing to take the jab.
Dr Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, urged all doctors to counsel their patients to take vaccines. Fears of side-effects as also misinformation about vaccines have led to this hesitancy. Those who have seen their friends and family members suffer from the side-effects of fatigue and fever are not willing to give up their productive days at work for the vaccination.
Experts say the vaccines are the only way forward to protect people from the severe disease. It has been noted that those who were vaccinated and infected in the second wave have suffered from mild disease only.
“This is the sign that the vaccines are working and these offer protection.” The second wave is seeing a gradual decline across India and maximum people must opt for vaccination for protection, they say.
As in the case of Spanish Flu, there could be a third and fourth wave but medical history has shown that these have not been very severe. Despite the emergence of new variants of the C-virus, experts state that vaccines will be tweaked according to the nature of the emerging variants.
Dr Guleria said: "Coronavirus vaccines are expected to be a yearly phenomenon like the influenza vaccine. Studies are on to find out whether there can be a combined dose for both. Real-time data is showing efficacy and all must be encouraged to take the vaccine."
The documented cases of Covid-19 in India are of 2.96 crore but there are undocumented cases ,which means there is a larger spread of the disease and development of antibodies.
Comparing the first and second wave, experts say the caution must not be given up after the vaccination as masks are compulsory till herd immunity is achieved. For a population of 100crore, this will not be possible till December 2021 and there is the need to continue with the safety protocols.
