AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria on rumours surrounding vaccines.
I don't think the third wave will be as deadly as the second wave. The need is to follow Covid protocol and vaccinate as many people as we can, said AIIMS chief Dr. Randeep Guleria. Speaking in Aaj Ki Baat with Rajat Sharma, Editor-In-Chief and Chairman, India TV, Dr Guleria also rubbished all rumours surrounding Covid vaccine amid reports of people expressing apprehension over vaccine shots.
AIIMS Chief Dr Randeep Guleria on rumours surrounding Covid vaccine | Top Points
- Dr. Randeep Guleria said it's sad that such rumours are being spread at a time when we are fighting this pandemic.
- Data shows that people who have already taken vaccine shots, still contracted the virus, had mild symptoms. It is infact risky if people are avoiding vaccine, therefore, these rumours have no scientific basis.
- Rumours are being spread to sensationalise, create panic among people.
- If a person is fully inoculated and still catches the Covid infection, the symptoms will be mild and the patient will recover soon.
- Since vaccine efficacy is not 100% and being around 80-90%, very rare number of people have gone through serious infection.
- There are several doctors who were fully vaccinated and were working in Covid hospitals but did not catch the virus.
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- In cities, vaccine hesitency among people have turned to vaccine eagerness... but everyone cannot be inoculated in one day... demand and supply has to be balanced.... we expect that by July the situation will improve.
- Daily Covid numbers are not being fudged, tests are being conducted as much as or even more as they were being done earlier but cases, admissions to hospitals have come down.
- Third wave of Covid depends on what our conduct would be... I don't feel that the third wave will be as deadly, dangerous as the second wave was.
- It is for us to make sure that the third wave doesn't come so we have to follow all protocols responsibly.
- Vaccination will be a key weapon.
- If we go by first and second Covid wave data at large, the Covid infection has been very mild in children across the world, except some rare cases, therefore, it wouldn't be right to say that children will face serious infection if at all the third wave comes.
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India TV in the primetime show ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ on Monday (May 31) night, showed how villagers from Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal to Bhagalpur in Bihar, expressing scepticism about the vaccines. It was evident that illiterate and semi-literate villagers are unwilling to get themselves vaccinated, based on baseless rumours and incorrect conjectures. In some villages, they are calling it ‘zehar ka injection’ (the poisonous injection). Health workers, including doctors, are having a tough time convincing villagers that the vaccines are harmless and are meant to protect them from the virus.
In some villagers, people said they would rather prefer to die in the pandemic rather than get themselves vaccinated and die. Rumours are rife in villages that most of the people who took vaccines died of Coronavirus. In some villages, local residents chased away and beat up health department workers who had come to vaccinate them.
