It has been over a year since the COVID-19 and the government of India has allowed vaccination of the 18-45yr age group. Earlier it was restricted to people of age above 45 and healthcare or frontline workers. It has now become common knowledge that vaccines are the ultimate tool that can save lives and livelihood. Vaccines are also important to get the economy back on track. But, it has been observed that due to vaccine misinformation and ‘information overload’, vaccine hesitancy is on the rise. Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in people accepting vaccination as a robust public health intervention. It leads to people either refusing to take vaccines or doubting the vaccines due to misinformation and rumors. WHO has referred to vaccine hesitancy as one of the top threats to global health.
Here are a few points to address vaccine hesitancy:
1. Vaccination protects you from getting sick
Experts and authorities have consistently stressed the fact that vaccines can prevent death and the severity of the infection. A vaccine trains your body to develop specific antibodies to fight any future infection, hence protecting you from the disease. These vaccines provide a boost to your body’s immunity system.
2. vaccination helps others in your community
The elders and people with co-morbidities like diabetes and heart diseases are more vulnerable to severe COVID infection. The chain of transmission can be broken if more people get vaccinated in a community, thus creating a protective shield around themselves. Each person getting a vaccine reduces the chance of spreading it to others who might not have received their vaccine or the vulnerable sections.
3. Vaccines are safe
Samiran Panda, Head of ECD division in ICMR says, “ Vaccines are one of the most important public health tools we have to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases”. Governments across the globe are concerned about the health impacts of any large-scale public health intervention. They approve a vaccine for public use only after rigorous human trials have been conducted and data is favorable to public use. WHO has released a robust mechanism for vaccine trials to test its efficacy and safety.
4. Side effects are temporary
Since COVID vaccines do not contain any live virus, you will not get infected due to the vaccines. You might experience a few side effects like a sore arm, mild fever, and body aches. But these side effects are temporary. And these side effects only mean that your immune system is fighting back and responding to the vaccine by developing antibodies against the infection.
5. Vaccines provide extra protection if you have already had COVID
As per the current guidelines you should still get vaccinated even if you have been infected with COVID earlier. This is because antibodies by the previous infection are not permanent and they might disappear after a few months. This would leave you susceptible to the COVID again.
You can search for vaccine slot availability on the ‘Vaccine Slot Finder’ on the OneDios app. It allows you to have a streamlined and uncomplicated experience while searching for your vaccine slot. You have to simply enter your Pincode to get the relevant information about slot availability. OneDios COVID 19 Vaccine Slot Finder empowers you to efficiently check available vaccine slots in your area by making the process easygoing, painless, and reliable.
You can also track vaccine-related statistics on the “Vaccination Dashboard” available on the OneDios app. The data for the dashboard is sourced from official Co-Win Statistics. Through this dashboard, you can stay informed about the number of sites conducting vaccination and total vaccination doses in real-time. Relevant data and trends are presented in user-friendly graphs, categories, and visual formats for greater access. You can also check updated data by selecting your state or district to know about specific statistics.