 You're watching News Made Easy, I'm Anandya Chakravarty and today I'm going to talk about this so-called vaccine hesitancy that we've been told that the reason why there's not enough vaccination in India is because we, the citizens of the country were hesitant, scared of taking the vaccine If only we had all agreed to take the vaccine right at the beginning, then all of us would have got vaccinated by now. This is what is being pushed out on social media by those who are trying to prop up the governments and all state governments who failed to provide us vaccination. Now, please understand one thing. Let's start with a simple number. Those who are above 45 years old, we were told that about 90% of those who have died in India because of COVID were above 45 years old. So that is the population which needed to be vaccinated first. We were also told that first it will be opened up for frontline workers, people who are working in directly dealing with COVID. So doctors, healthcare workers, yes, of course, that has to be done first. And then we were told that senior citizens will get it. Then we were told those with comorbidities and are 45 plus, they will get it. And guess what happened? The government's own estimates suggest that there are 270 million or 227 crore, depends on what you are comfortable with crore or million. I'm giving you both the same number. 27 crore or 270 million people in India who are either senior citizens or they are 45 plus with comorbidities, which means they have diabetes or hypertension or something like that, which could make them more susceptible to die of COVID if they caught it. So we were told that these 27 crore people or 270 million people are the target population who have to be vaccinated first. So 27 crore, how many doses would you require if you have to give two doses to them? And remember, at that time, we were being told that the second dose is in four weeks. Later, it was extended to eight weeks. And now we know for Covishield, we have been told that you can take it in 12 to 16 weeks. We'll come back to that later. But the vaccine hesitancy that we have been talking about, let's come back to that. 27 crore people who are either senior citizens or above 45 years of age with comorbidities, right? Two doses, that is 54 crore or 540 million doses were required. Let's say everyone said, we are going to take the vaccine. Every single person said, we are going to take the vaccine. We needed 540 million doses. Let's say 50% of these people said, I'm too scared of taking the vaccine. I'm not going to take it. I'm going to wait and see what others do, right? Even then, 270 million doses were required or 27 crore doses were required. How many doses have we managed to give till now? As I said, 180 to 185 million doses have been given. When we were talking about giving doses early to those who had comorbidities and were above 45 years old or senior citizens, till today, if every one of those had to be vaccinated, the total number of doses we've been able to give is only one third of that. One third of that. So, vaccine hesitancy is just a bogey. It's an excuse for the mismanagement of the vaccination process. Now, we have been repeatedly told that India will be self-sufficient, atmanirvar in making vaccines, and we will all be able to get vaccines. Remember when the government's body, the recommending body for COVID-19 vaccination, when it increased the gap between the first and second dose of Covishield, which is the AstraZeneca vaccine, from four to six or eight weeks. I said earlier, you were supposed to take it within four weeks, and they said that you can take it within six to eight weeks. They said that we are not convinced that it should be taken beyond the eight-week level. Remember, and one of the things that was reported in the Indian Express was, the reason why the recommending body did not say that it should go beyond eight weeks is because we have enough vaccines. We're not short of vaccines. They said those countries, which are short of vaccines, they are extending it to 12 weeks because they want to cover most of their population with their first dose. We are not short of vaccines, so we don't have to worry about extending the date for the second dose. And what happens? Very soon, we are told, scientific research tells us it has to be now 12 to 16 weeks. And it has been increased further, I'm told. Those who have already got COVID, everywhere in the world, they were told that they need to get a shot within 15 days. Later, it was extended in some parts of the world. Now, we are being told that they don't need to take it within nine months. Now, this kind of information is coming, and then we are being blamed for vaccine hesitancy. Right? If there was vaccine hesitancy, this was the reason. Every new vaccine is tested for years. Trial results are put out. The government bodies, approving bodies, look at it. Authorities look at it and then say, okay, the cost-benefit ratio here is positive. In the sense that the benefits are much more than the rare costs of some side effects, serious side effects, and some deaths. They do occur. They do occur in all kinds of vaccination. We know that, right? But a call is taken after years of study, after it's rolled out in parts of the world, studied, and then moved to other parts of the world. COVID is a completely different kettle of fish. It's a different beast, and therefore, emergency use approval was given to all vaccines, right? Within less than one year of trials, within just a few months of trials. When it came to co-vaccine made by Bharat Biotech, remember Bharat Biotech is a respected vaccine maker across the world. There's no reason for us to think that its vaccines will be bad, right? But trial results need to be published. Doctors need to see it. Doctors and scientists need to see those vaccine results, trial results, and say, yes, we agree with Bharat Biotech that this is correct. This should be used, right? Are we supposed to take it on faith? We know that there have been vaccines introduced and then taken back, rolled back. There are many such cases that you hear about. The reason why people hesitated about Bharat Biotech's vaccine was very simple, that scientists were hesitant. Top scientists said that this is not the way to give an emergency approval to a vaccine without publishing any trial data, right? You only published the safety data. You don't even have the efficacy data. Why are you rolling it out? Well, it was for the government and for Bharat Biotech to reassure those scientists so that those scientists could reassure us. As long as those questions remained, it was absolutely rational for people to think twice. As soon as the reports of certain adverse reactions to Covishield came, people became hesitant about Covishield. Again, a rational thing to happen. But then they decided when the second wave came, the number of deaths increased. India's health system, how terrible it is, it got revealed what happened. Everyone said it is better. Let's take a chance with Covishield or Covaxin, better than dying of COVID. COVID is a bigger killer than Covishield or any of these have been proved to be, right? So even if certain countries in Europe had put restrictions on AstraZeneca's vaccine which we are using here as Covishield, Indians in general have been lining up to take Covishield because they know that their health system is so poor. That is better to take a chance with a vaccine which gives very rare side effects, extremely rare, right? In the UK, 4 in 1 million. In India, the new data suggests 0.7 in 1 million, right? So even if that kind of side effects, rare side effects, it's worth taking a chance because the side effects of COVID, even if you recover, are much worse, right? So everyone was ready to do it after the second wave. There was no vaccine hesitancy because there were no vaccines. Today it is almost impossible to get appointments in a city like Delhi. It's now become a fastest finger first game and even those who are pretty fast are unable to get it. So, vaccine hesitancy. The next time someone tells you that the reason there's not enough vaccination is because, you know, Indians were too scared of vaccines. There's too much vaccine. This is utter rubbish. Don't believe it. Do not believe it. People are trying every day to get appointments and they're failing across India. This is because of a shortage of vaccines, vaccines per planning, the inability to ramp up in time. No proper calculations done. That is the reason, not people's vaccine hesitancy. That is an important thing. Always, if anyone raises this with you, do give this answer. That's the show for today.