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Aditi Tandon
Tripta Vasudev is not particularly vaccine sceptic, but she would rather wait for the first wave of Covid-19 vaccinations to be over before volunteering for a shot. “How do we know the vaccines are safe? All our lives we have been told it takes years to develop safe vaccines. Now two have been approved in less than a year of the Covid-19 outbreak. I have my worries,” says the 62-year-old, who falls in the priority group that the Centre has listed for initial rounds of the Covid-19 inoculation to be rolled out beginning January 16.
Unaddressed issues
The first set of dry runs was, by and large, smooth. It presented minor issues such as space constraints, network connectivity and technical challenges with the Co-WIN portal. These will be fixed. There are other issues — product-related concerns like vaccine research results, efficacy; prioritisation issues such as why immune-compromised children should not be a priority; and the most critical issue of potential adverse effects given that these are new vaccines with fast-tracked approvals — these need to be addressed. Rajib Dasgupta, Chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU