PTI report. With India’s Covid graph inches upwards, not enough people are getting their booster shots. Among the reasons for the apparent lethargy are the fear of adverse effects, the view that Covid is now a mild infection and doubts over whether a precaution dose is indeed useful, said scientists, public health experts and industry insiders.
As to virologist Dr T Jacob John, vaccine fatigue has set in, also because the "cacophony of new experts" has been confusing. “I get a number of questions for clarification on booster doses -- hence I know that the ‘educational activity’ of the government that wants to prevent Covid-19 deaths, hospitalisations and severe symptoms by completing the vaccination schedule in highly vulnerable people was more confusing than clarifying," John told PTI.
For a long time, people were told that full vaccination meant two doses so the term precaution dose added to the confusion, added the former director of the Indian Council for Medical Research's Centre of Advanced Research in Virology.
Vaccine fatigue, experts explained, is when people do not take proactive action to get vaccinated. In the view of Praveen Sikri, Ikris Pharma Network CEO, people are questioning the need for a precaution dose, thinking the last wave was mild.