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MAJOR NOIDA, India: India’s massive coronavirus vaccination campaign is delayed, with a third of beneficiaries not showing up for appointments due to safety fears, technical failures and the belief that the pandemic is ending.
After a week, India has vaccinated 1.4 million people, or 200,000 people per day. It initially hoped to process 300,000 a day before accelerating deployment and inoculating 300 million by July.
At Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida near New Delhi, 17-year-old pharmacy student Khushi Dhingra hugged a friend and cried while waiting to receive her injection.
“I am very afraid. I hate needles and I am worried about the side effects,” he told AFP.
“My dad is also very concerned. He calls me over and over again to make sure I’m okay.”
READ: India’s Gigantic COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign Could Be The Envy Of Other Countries, One Comment
“There are about 80 students in my group, but only two have chosen to get vaccinated,” said nursing student Sakshi Sharma, 21, from Greater Noida.
“My friends say there will be side effects, that you can even have paralysis.”
India is using two shots for its momentum.
One is Covishield, a locally produced version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been approved and used safely in several other countries after completing phase 3 human trials.
The other, Covaxin, was developed locally by Bharat Biotech and has not yet completed Phase 3 testing, although the government has insisted that it is “110% safe.”
WHATSAPP CONCERNS
Side effects are a common fear, with some cases of serious reactions, and even deaths, being widely reported in the media and circulating wildly on Facebook and WhatsApp.
In the eastern state of West Bengal, health chief Ajoy Chakraborty said turnout was just under 70 percent, calling it “not encouraging.”
“We could have achieved our goal if some had not backed off after seeing television reports of adverse effects after vaccination,” Chakraborty said.
The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine in India has been affected by the spread of misinformation on social media (Photo: AFP / Manjunath KIRAN)
But Alisha Khan, 20, a nursing student in Greater Noida, said people were also hesitant because of Covaxin’s “hasty” approval.
“Why are they trying to experiment with us? First, they should have completed the tests properly,” Khan told AFP. “I’m shaking with fear.”
CORONAVIRUS COMPLIANCE
Dhingra, in the end, did not receive a vaccination after staff realized that she was under 18 years old. However, he had received a text message telling him to come for the vaccination of the IT system that manages the gigantic process.
The government says this and other technical problems are being solved.
One was that if one person did not show up for vaccination, another person could not simply take their place.
This led to the unfinished vaccine vials, which contain a certain number of doses and must be used that day, being thrown away.
READ: Modi says India is self-sufficient in COVID-19 vaccines as 1 million were inoculated
Also hurting the effort is complacency with the number of coronavirus infections and deaths in India dropping sharply in recent months.
“At first, when there was a closure, (the villagers) were very scared by the coronavirus,” said Asha Chauhan, 30, who is part of vaccination efforts in rural areas.
“Now that fear is gone because the cases have dropped. They feel that the crown has left our country now,” he said. “They fear dying if they get vaccinated.”
SELFIE ZONES
Many of the 30 million people who must receive injections in the first phase are health workers who have seen the deadly pandemic up close, but many of them doubt.
This needs to be addressed before the vaccine spreads to the general Indian population, experts say, where skepticism about the vaccine is already rife.
“They must launch awareness campaigns in every corner of the country,” Anita Yadav, 25, an auxiliary nurse and midwife, told AFP.
The government has tried to boost participation, including by adapting a classic Bollywood song with lyrics telling people not to believe false rumors.
India’s massive COVID-19 vaccination campaign is delayed, hampered by technical failures and safety fears. (Photo: AFP / Tauseef MUSTAFA)
A Delhi hospital has established a “selfie zone” for satisfied recipients to take photos. And vaccination centers have started playing soft, relaxing music in waiting rooms.
“All the best doctors and physicians have taken the hit and we are pushing the videos of them taking the injection to circulate and it has helped to overcome any doubts,” said Dr. Qazi Haroon, Immunization Officer in Kashmir.
“Now (vaccines) are recovering satisfactorily … Yesterday (Friday), we met 80 to 90 percent of our targets at vaccination stations.”
Shahid Jameel, a virologist and academic, said that a country like India was destined to have initial problems.
“Once the front-line workers take the blows,” Jameel told AFP, “confidence will slowly increase.”
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