While vaccine companies rush to seek authorisation for emergency use in India, there are quite a few people who are skeptical about taking a vaccine against COVID-19.
‘Vaccine hesitancy’ is the buzzword and this hesitancy is different from anti-vaccine sentiments. People genuinely have questions about safety, efficacy, adverse events, and the speed with which developments have taken place.
So far, three vaccine groups – Serum Institute's Covishield which is the Indian name of the vaccine being developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Covaxin – India's swadeshi vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech, and the vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer and BioNTech have sought emergency approval in India.
Russia, which is also preparing to seek the DCGI’s approval, has tied up with Dr Reddy’s Lab to conduct trials in India.
But before some of these vaccines hit the market, we take all the questions around ‘vaccine hesitancy’ to virologist Dr Shahid Jameel. Tune in!
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