With hospitals decked out with flowers and balloons, India began Saturday one of the world's biggest coronavirus vaccine rollouts, a colossal and complex task compounded by safety worries, shaky infrastructure, and public skepticism.
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»Flowers, Hope, Consent Forms for India s Huge Vaccine Rollout Against Covid-19 That Killed 150,000 Citizens
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Flowers, Hope, Consent Forms for India s Huge Vaccine Rollout Against Covid-19 That Killed 150,000 Citizens
A medic records details of frontline workers during the administering of COVID-19 vaccine at Howrah district Hospital, Saturday, Jan 16, 2021. (PTI Photo/Swapan Mahapatra)
India aims to vaccinate around 300 million of its 1.3 billion people by July a number equal to almost the entire US population with frontline workers, people over 50 and those deemed high risk first in line.
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Hospitals were decked out with flowers and one politician planted a tree as India began Saturday its colossal coronavirus vaccine drive, desperately hoping to end a pandemic that has killed 150,000 of its people.
India begins one of the world's biggest coronavirus vaccine programmes on Saturday, a colossal and complex task compounded by safety worries, shaky infrastructure and public scepticism. And as in other countries, there is scepticism about the vaccine, fuelled by a torrent of hoaxes and baseless rumours online about the virus.
4398 BIG CHALLENGE: Vaccinating a billion people with multiple doses against Covid-19 is going to be a daunting task in India. Tribune photo
Dr R Kumar
President, Society for Promotion of Ethical and Affordable Healthcare
If the bulk of the population is immunised against the coronavirus pathogen, it will not find hosts; hence, it will not spread through the community. However, some degree of skepticism exists since it is given to healthy people and reports of anaphylaxis deaths in a few cases and side effects and allergies in many cases have been pouring in.
A study has found that 94 per cent of formerly infected patients had diminished antibody levels within 90 days. Will the immunity caused after vaccination sustain longer? Will the vaccine be effective even against the mutated versions of the virus?