COVID Vaccination Mania – The Rat Race!

Introduction

India launched the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16, 2021 in selected states in the country,1 including Karnataka.2 The first phase targeted only healthcare workers (HCWs) and the CoWIN app was launched for easy registration of these beneficiaries. As per the target, all HCWs were to be vaccinated within a week, but only 51% of HCWs were vaccinated by the end of one month. The vaccine hesitancy was higher among private sector HCWs, and most medical college students postponed their vaccination due to exams and the fear of side effects.3 Later in the second phase, front line workers (FLWs) were also included, and yet, only 31% of FLWs in Karnataka got vaccinated within the next month. Slowly, people started gaining confidence in these vaccines and came forward to COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs). The vaccination was celebrated by the beneficiaries, with a lot of them taking photographs and displaying them on their social media platforms. This motivated those who had initial vaccine hesitancy. From 12th March, COVAXIN was made available in Karnataka. The third phase of the vaccination drive was started on 1st March, aimed at the elderly and people with comorbidities. This was gradually extended to beneficiaries over 45 years of age from 1st April. From 1st May, people within the ages of 18-44 years were included, but this was temporarily suspended due to shortage of vaccines and the available vaccines were diverted to those who were due for their second dose.

In the last few months, there has been a drastic change in the behaviour of the common man who was initially hesitant to receive the vaccine; he is now demanding the vaccine. Even today, people are ready to stand in long queues early in the morning at 7 AM for 3-4 hours in front of CVCs to collect tokens and to receive the vaccine. Among them, a few were not wearing masks at all, a few masks were old and tattered, a few masks were below the nose; most of them had pulled down their masks entirely while speaking to staff. A few people were also seen coughing and sneezing without any regard for cough etiquettes in the waiting rooms and observation rooms. So, the chance of an infected person walking into a CVC and spreading the COVID infection is a possibility that cannot be negated. This possibility of infection increases as the waiting time increases at the CVC, due to long queues and 30-minute observation times. Despite the CVCs being close to COVID hospitals and the risk of exposure to the disease being high, people are still willing to wait in these queues. There is an increased demand for COVAXIN due to its perceived benefits and the short duration between doses (4-6 weeks), as compared to COVISHIELD (4-8 weeks now changed to 12-16 weeks).4 Despite signs of “NO STOCK” of vaccines being displayed at CVCs, people were still standing in the queue, hoping that vaccines will be given.

Following the media information of vaccines being made available for people over 18 years in Karnataka, there was a mad rush at all the CVCs. However, the government has issued clear instructions to vaccinate only those who have registered in the CoWIN app with a confirmed appointment. It was also observed that only a few tech-savvy people were able to get the online appointments for the vaccine, while a lot of people complained that no slots were available to book, even if they had been trying for several days, even several times in a single day. It was difficult to convince the public that no walk-in vaccination was allowed for people over 18 years, which led to a lot of conflicts between the public and the staff involved in the vaccination drive. A few people were requesting to get vaccinated without receiving any vaccination certificate for confirmation. As the private CVCs withdrew and announced that they would start giving COVID vaccinations from 1st May, the crowd increased at most of the government CVCs. At the beginning of the second wave, it was observed that there was increased COVID morbidity and mortality among the younger population, and hence the inclusion criteria for vaccine beneficiaries were also widened under FLWs, which created a steep rise in vaccine demand. This led to a demand for vaccines from both the elderly and the young population simultaneously, which was difficult to handle all at once by the concerned staff. It was observed that the younger citizens who were in a hurry to receive the vaccine were breaking the queues, which irritated the senior citizens who had waited for a long time in the queue, leading to a lot of chaos at CVCs. Also, increased pressure from VIPs, influential and elite people to vaccinate themselves or their relatives or friends, added to the chaos as they bypassed waiting lines.

Currently at one end, due to the shortage of vaccines and increased demand, chaos has been observed among those who were waiting for their second dose, while at the other end, young adults are uncertain of receiving their first dose even after waiting for their actual turns. What we need to keep in mind is that the purpose of vaccination is to reduce the disease severity and not to prevent infection. In this current situation, people need to understand that it is only a matter of time till the government has to increase vaccine production and meet the increasing demand.

People visit CVC’s to receive the vaccine and not to carry COVID infections from the centres into their homes. So, rather than risking their lives unnecessarily by standing in long queues, we must request people to co-operate and wait patiently for their turn. Until then, please continue to use masks and maintain social distance because, after all, “PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE”.

Conflict of Interest

None.