Dear Editor, Through columns of your esteemed newspaper, I would like to express my views on ongoing vaccination drive of COVID-19 in India. The vaccination drive for COVID-19 started in India on 16th January 2021, firstly for inoculating frontline workers, doctors, 50 years plus volunteers and below 50 years people having co-morbidities. On 1st March, 2nd phase of the vaccination drive began to inoculate 60 years plus people and on 1st April, 3rd phase started to inoculate 45 years plus people. Finally fourth phase of vaccination drive began on 1st May to inoculate people with age more than 18 years. Till 5th June 2021, 4.46 crore people have taken both the jabs of vaccine but it is only 3.3 per cent of Indian population. Now, here some questions arise regarding accuracy, side-effects and availability of vaccine in India. What is the future of India after vaccination? If not vaccine, what else do we need to keep COVID-19 at bay? What happened to other countries? If we take example of State of Israel, vaccination drive started there in December last year, due to which death toll remains constant & mortality curve became flat after vaccination. It has now reached the herd immunity of a nation or we can say when majority of country’s population has attained protection against infection and according to WHO experts, 60-70 per cent of population must be vaccinated to attain herd immunity. Now Israel is all set to vaccinate kids from 12-15 years, once approved by the US Food and Drug administration. USA saw the peak of COVID-19 infection in January 2021 and their vaccination drive started in December last year, due to which COVID-19 cases in US went down. India is a country of 1.35 billion people. Although it will take time but likewise other countries, when majority of population of India will be vaccinated, only then the impact of virus will decrease. Vaccination doesn’t give us 100 per cent immunity from COVID-19 infection. However if we have taken both doses with correct time difference, it will ensure 80-90 per cent immunity from virus after two weeks time from 2nd dose. Even if we are fully vaccinated and get infected, the infection will be mild as compared to a non-vaccinated person. In social media, some rumour-mongers are creating false information regarding vaccine. Both Covaxin & Covishield vaccines are totally safe and in the present time, vaccination is the only solution to secure future. Vaccination not only decreases hospitalisation and spread of virus transmission but also make us safe from virus to a great extent. Arun Khajuria, Kathua.
