JAMMU: Strongly vouching for the efficacy of COVID vaccine amid the unfounded fears and unwarranted rumours, Dr Naveed Nazeer Shah, Professor, Govt. Medical College, Srinagar, today informed Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, that all such fears and misconceptions were baseless, as the efficacy of vaccines, made in India, has been found over 60 per cent by the companies producing these.
During the “Mann ki Baat” telecast this morning, Dr Naved Nazeer told the Prime Minister that despite getting infected even after the vaccination, there is no threat to the life of the patient compared to those without jab.
Interacting with Dr Naveed, PM asked him to elaborately explain about panic management during these difficult times of global pandemic to the listeners of Mann ki Baat. He asked him about his response to the listeners based on his experiences.
Dr Naveed said that at the start of pandemic the City hospital of Srinagar was the first hospital to be designated as Covid hospital which comes under medical college. There was an atmosphere of fear not only among people who used to think Covid infection as virtual death sentence but also among the doctors and para medics of our hospital. They had apprehension that they too might get infected while treating patients. But as time passed by we observed that if we use proper protective gear and follow safety guidelines we will ensure our safety as well as of our staff. Later, we observed that about 90 to 95 per cent of patients who were sick and asymptomatic got recovered without medication. So with the passage of time fear of Corona greatly diminished. Even today when we are facing second wave of Corona we need not panic, even now if we follow protective measures, Covid SOPs such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, hand hygiene, avoiding social gathering we can continue daily routine while protecting ourselves from infection.
PM also asked him to share his views about various queries of people regarding corona vaccine such as how protective are the vaccines? How secure one can feel after vaccination, for the benefit of general masses?
Dr Naveed said that we have two ways to fight and prevent this pandemic first is strict adherence to all preventive SOPs and other is vaccination.
If we talk about Jammu and Kashmir, there are 15 to 16 lakh people who have been vaccinated so far. “Yes there were lot of misconceptions and myths spread on social media regarding side effects of this vaccine, although there were normal effects observed of this vaccination which can be associated with any other vaccination like fever, pain at the site of vaccination etc but none severe, adverse side effect has been reported in the UT yet”, he maintained. Also, there was another apprehension among the people that few persons were found positive even after vaccination, in this regard companies themselves have said in their guidelines that people can get infected even after vaccination but the severity of the disease will not be much , meaning such persons may be positive but their infection will not be life threatening. Hence we must remove all misconceptions about vaccines.
As from May 1 in the entire country a vaccination drive will begin for those above 18 years of age, Dr Naveed appealed to the people to get themselves vaccinated for their protection as well as protection of our society and community.
