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Doctors, Selfie Points Help Fight Vaccine Hesitancy in New Delhi

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - Azhoni Marina had witnessed the havoc wrought by the
   COVID-19 pandemic up close as she nursed patients in a COVID ward for
   seven months at New Delhi's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. As she waited
   after her night shift to get her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine,
   however, she was apprehensive.

   "I heard from so many people that there is lot of side effect, so
   actually I was a bit worried before I received the vaccine," Marina
   said.

   However, a sense of relief washed over her when she did not suffer any
   aftereffects during the half-hour mandatory wait after she got the
   shot.

   "I am now waiting for my second dose," she said, heading home.

   Unlike most countries, for India the challenge is not availability of
   vaccines as it rolls out a nationwide inoculation drive -- there are
   millions of doses ready in the world's largest vaccine-producing
   country.

   Since launching the program in mid-January, though, health officials
   have been battling to overcome "vaccine hesitancy" as people scheduled
   to take shots failed to show up at inoculation centers.

   The waning pandemic in India, health officials warn, has led to a sense
   of complacency about the need to get vaccines, while initial reports
   about possible side effects have raised doubts among some. That
   includes some of the country's 30 million health and front-line
   workers, who are first in line to get the shots.

   At the Apollo Hospital, doctors ramped up the numbers of inoculations
   by stepping forward to take the vaccine to allay doubts -- the daily
   numbers of inoculations have grown nearly threefold here.

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