An inter-departmental survey conducted by the health services two months ago revealed that several factors are responsible for hesitancy in taking the COVID booster dose, of which the most common reason is the long-term and short-term side-effects of the vaccine. State immunization officer, Dr. Rajendra Borkar, stated that a questionnaire was circulated among health officers to ascertain why people were not coming forward to take precautionary doses and what could be done to address the problem. Many people said they had taken two doses and had suffered from COVID. Thus, they had developed a hybrid immunity and didn’t need a third dose. 

Dr. Borkar stated that people are under the impression that the disease has disappeared and have refrained from taking the third dose. Now, people consider COVID as a mild illness. He further explained that with hardly any hospitalizations and deaths reported, people don’t mind contracting the infection as they have seen others recover without many side effects. Hence, people have been emboldened to not take the precautionary dose.

Health services, despite their best efforts, have been struggling to meet the target of administering the maximum precaution doses to people aged between 18 and 59. As of Tuesday, with a target population of 9 lakhs in this category, as little as 5.8% had taken the third dose of the target population of 9 lakhs in the category. Similarly, out of 1.5 lakh people in the age group of 60 years and above, only 52.1% have received the shots. Also, the vaccine coverage among children aged 12–14 years has not been satisfactory, with only 52.8% being fully vaccinated to date.

(Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/fear-of-side-effects-the-main-reason-for-low-vax-rates-in-health-care/93745350 )