Unwillingness to take COVID-19 vaccines is jeopardizing the worlds biggest COVID shots campaign with health workers also in India as they too are worried of receiving the vaccine shots.

Just half of Indian doctors and nurses are coming to the vaccine appointments. This has forecasted that the worlds second most populated nation is intensely behind the vaccination targets.

On 3rd January, two vaccines were granted emergency use authorization that were manufactured in the country, Bharat Biotech’s state-funded Covaxin and the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine. The Covaxin shot is still to complete the phase three trials.

Doubt about the Indian government has authorised a homebased vaccine without publishing acceptable efficacy data along with the widespread online disinformation both have damaged public acceptance of shots. On Thursday, official data showed that only 54 percent of healthcare workers showed up for vaccine appointments.

Approximately 30 million healthcare along with other frontline workers were the first in the queue for vaccine shots. A senior immunisation officer said that they are given the target to inoculate 10 million healthcare workers by February end. But the present rate of immunizations makes it very difficult.

In a survey that was conducted by New Delhi-based online platform, 62 percent of 17,000 respondents were unwilling to get immunized immediately, mostly due to doubts about possible adverse reactions.

Acceptance is low and few health employers have also threatened to delay the salaries unless the staff receive the vaccine shots. Doctors have protested that authorities should release the efficacy data on Indias Covaxin before they receive it. Authorities have blamed the misinformation on social media platforms for creating doubts related to the vaccine.

India’s health minister, Harsh Vardhan said that there are only a handful of consigned political interests who are spreading rumours and causing vaccine willingness among those who are vulnerable to such publicity in the population.

Dr Shahid Jameel, who is India’s top virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, believes that the vaccine hesitancy is triggered by the lack of efficacy data and mixed messaging.

Partha Majumder, President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, is one of the 13 signatories of a letter to the Government, said that appropriate data from the larger phase three efficacy trial should be made available before administering the vaccine to huge numbers of individuals. He further said that providing a vaccine without acceptable efficacy data can lead to “a false sense of security” among the beneficiaries.

Malini Aisola, who is a co-convenor of All India Drug Action Network, which is a civil society organisation that works for patients’ rights, said that the controversy related to the vaccine could backfire the routine immunization programmes.

Indias remarkable vaccine production lines are at the forefront of global production. While other nations are struggling to meet the vaccine demand, India is struggling to convince people to get the shots.

Source: The Telegraph