Topics Covered: Awareness in IT and biotechnology.
Vaccine hesitancy:
Context:
An online survey has shown that as the country readies to implement its COVID-19 vaccination programme, vaccine hesitancy could be an issue that the government needs to address forthwith.
- The results showed that there was considerable hesitation even among the medical community to take the vaccine as soon as it is available.
What’s the Concern?
A vaccine is one of the essential weapons in the armamentarium in our war against the pandemic. Any hesitation in accepting the vaccine will have a negative consequence on our effort to control the pandemic.
Need of the hour:
- Proactively address the reasons behind this hesitancy.
- Give confidence to the public by discussing the robustness of various processes involved in drug/vaccine development — clinical trial designs, conduct, monitoring, analysis, reporting and the regulatory reviews that happen before it is approved.
- This will make the public aware about the rigorous processes followed for clinical trials, and the approval, as followed by regulators.
Vaccine Hesitancy: A generation at risk:
- Vaccine hesitancy is defined by WHO as a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services”.
- It was one of 10 threats to global health this year.
Sources: the Hindu.
