Important facts about VACCINATION

Author : Dr K Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Group Hospitals

VACCINATED?

India

healthysoch

New Delhi, April 06, 2021 ;

Covid Vaccination is occupying the mind space of the country while the second wave is rampant. Holi, Elections, Gatherings, Virus mutation… a variety of reasons are being attributed to the drastic rise in Covid numbers. Irrespective of the reason, it is critical to understand a few important facts.

1. An individual once recovered from Covid is not immune to Covid for ever. We have seen a number of people having infection a second time.
2. We are seeing a number of people who received both doses of the vaccine also getting the Infection. Having said that, it must be emphasised here that people infected after vaccination are getting only milder form of the disease and are recovering rapidly. While one cannot be careless after being vaccinated, vaccination is a must and prevents infection and even in the small minority who are getting infected are not having serious problems.
3. We have seen many people rushing to get antibody tests done to check the efficacy of the vaccine and getting worried if the test for antibodies is negative. There are multiple types of antibodies and the test result depends on which antibody it looks for. One should also remember that presence of antibodies is not essential for immunity against the virus as there are different mechanisms by which a vaccine induced immunity in an individual.
4. It is generally believed that younger individuals are spared from the serious issues associated with the infection. This is no more true because we are seeing serious problems in relatively younger individuals and even deaths. Therefore even the younger individuals need to be cautious and not take things for granted.
5. A lot is being said about new strains of the virus. This is not new or unexpected. Viruses are known to mutate and mutated viruses display different properties. Covid virus too is mutating and we are seeing the mutated forms manifest slightly differently.
6. Everything related to Covid is still evolving and we will see new facts emerging all the time. However behavioural discipline is the only definite weapon against the virus. Over the last one year we must have heard about hand hygiene, using a mask, avoiding gatherings and social distancing a million times but one needs to introspect about how many of us follow these behavioural patterns religiously. Let me conclude by reiterating the importance of behavioural discipline in combating Covid. 19 virus.

healthysoch