- No sooner than the pandemic was declared across the globe, the only issue in mind for most of the governments’ concerned was to ensure the mortality rates were kept at manageable levels, to shore up the healthcare infrastructure, and incessantly urge the people to follow health & safety protocols to keep the virus at bay. To reduce the movement of people from spreading the highly virulent virus, lockdown as a measure was adopted by most of the countries in a varied manner. Some stringent and some staggered to fight the unknown entity back then, as we all have experienced.
PC: Jonathan Lambert
- As the uncertainty and unfamiliarity surrounding the virus gradually made way for better understanding in tackling the menace adequately, the healthcare experts & the medical community backed by the government set about inventing an effective vaccine to overcome exceedingly extraordinary challenges faced by humanity. As initial apprehensions and mounting concerns to develop an effective vaccine gave way for concrete results of eventually finding one, hope to conquer, if not vanquish, the virus appears achievable in due course going by the encouraging signs on display.
- With few of the vaccine candidates receiving emergency user approvals from the Western and European countries after undergoing mandatory phases of clinical trials, the race to vaccinate people has commenced in right earnest. The United Kingdom has already commenced mass vaccination of its people since last week and many other countries are set to follow suit in the coming days. India is also not too far behind what with few vaccine candidates on the verge of obtaining user approval in the next few weeks.
PC: Kelly Malcom
- However, as the news reports suggest, there are few cases of discomfiture experienced after receiving the vaccine shots as apprehensive people are reporting the usual symptoms associated with any flu shots known to us. Harmless side effects like injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, redness at the injection site, headache, feeling feverish, and tenderness are nothing different or come with any novelty factor for humans. We all have experienced these side effects, if one may call it, during our lifetime in one or the other form.
- Reports suggest that about 2 – 10% of vaccine recipients can expect a reaction by feeling sick for a day or two. Therefore, it is prudent not to outweigh the benefits of getting vaccinated against failing to conquer unfounded fears. Of course, there is no gain without pain and it is here that the government machinery should diligently go about addressing the people’s concerns and fears by holding back nothing vis-à-vis harmless side effects associated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Dissemination of information on the same should start now and on a war footing.
