Perception on Covid-19 Vaccine
On Friday, finally, I took the Covid-19 Vaccine, with the hope that, it will help reduce the attack vector. If you do not know, then in India, currently people over the age of 45 can take this vaccine. Of course, the front line warriors, have taken the vaccine initially. And now its being given to general public, but only above that particular age.
I have consulted lot of people about the vaccine, which includes some doctors as well. And I was not very much convinced on their perception but given that no choice, I just went ahead and took it. Every one is saying that, the vaccine potentially can reduce the attack vector. So if one has taken 2 doses of vaccine, then, even though, he gets Covid-19, the effect will be mild. That means, with little or no medication, he can recover.
But this is definitely different than what a vaccine ideally should do, isn't it ? Ideally, it should protect from the disease. But that's not the case here. Every one is just going ahead with the belief that, it will save them from severe consequences. And that's based on what has been found so far based on the administration of the vaccine on masses. So the doctors say like It's not harmful, so if it can be helpful (??), then why not take it ?
The point is that, there is no accuracy matrix of the vaccine. Because a vaccine can only be proven over few years. but what is being tried now is to go ahead with best course of action. And in India, where getting the vaccine itself is considered to be a privilege, because of population vs availability, every one is kind of happy with the current trend. There is no statistics even to support the theory - it's all based on what we hear from doctors or friends.
There are two variants of the vaccine available - Covishield vs Covaxin. And in my place Covaxin is being administered. I have heard, Covishield has some complications like people taking them get fever, headache, body ache etc. Even some in my family took that in other places and reported the same. But Covaxin is kind of better than that. Again, its all theories based on what we hear from people's experience. Only time will tell, what we are going to face in longer term. I even came across a news where WHO is reviewing some cases of rare blood clots after Covishield is administered.
Unfortunately, we don't have a choice, except deciding to take it or not. Whatever happens after that, is all yours. No Government is going to provide any relief, if something really goes wrong. When companies like Pfizer wants the Government sign indemnity bond for supplying vaccine to India, what else you can expect.
I heard, there could be complications, within 72 hours, so I chose Friday because I could rest, in the week end. In the night, I experienced some sweating only. 48 hrs have been passed, and so far, I am doing all right. Hopefully, things will be fine, but again, that's all hope.
You can choose to take the vaccine in government centers, or private hospitals. You will have to pay 250/- in private hospitals. And you can register at https://www.cowin.gov.in and schedule your slot before, but in my case, I just walked in with my bio-metrics, and they did everything. After the vaccine was given, I had to sit for half an hour, under observation. While coming back, you could collect the certificate of vaccination. You can also download on your own, it sends you an OTP, using which you can log in and download, also see when your second dose is due.
With the current trend of rising cases in India, the best course of action, is believed to be take the vaccine. Of course, you can decide to take or not, but hey, there is no certificate of immunity as well. We have moved far away from Nature, to be confident of ourselves. And this is the price we are going to pay for that. And these pharma companies are going to raise the price of these vaccines, and even telling you that, you need to take them every six months or every year - Covid-19 has given them a nice business plan.