“Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services.”
The sage working group: 2015 Aug 14;33(34):4161-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.036. Epub 2015 Apr 17.
In Europe:
Europeans love to move around from country to countryside. A covid vaccination certificate is mandatory for this. Now, fake covid certificates were available in France for $350. ( Rs.25000)
Recently immigrants were fined $26000 for crossing the Austrian border with fake vaccination certificate. Clause: Flouting the covid safety norm.
This is the cost a man from Europe is ready to pay for a certificate like this.
In US:
Universal covid vaccination is available for all senior citizens. Different states have adopted different strategies to provide them.
In Florida: The state offers vaccine to all 65+ but on ‘first cum first get’ basis.
You have to be physically present at the vaccination centre. The day vaccine was rolled out, many 70 year+ couples queued up. One indian couple known to me stood in the queue right at 1.30 am in night. Because only 300 doses were available on the day. They were lucky. they could to serial number 288 and 289.
In New York City: You can book your vaccine online or even by phone. Government has even harnessed movie ticket booking websites for online booking of vaccine as movie halls were closed. One aged couple lined up two laptops, two iPhones for booking them vaccines online. From the onset, the phone line was clogged and remained so. The moment the booking opened, all the websites crashed. So the couple switched on a full movie on the Netflix and kept on dialling the hotline every few minutes. The hotline remained engaged. The website remained crashed for 45 minutes. When the site finally opened, all the vaccine slots were gone.
NYC administrators have some explanations. They have been instructed to arrange for people above 75 only. The estimated number for NYC is 350,000. But just one hour before opening, the age group was suddenly expanded to include all 65+. That counted to one million. No wonder, the website, hotline everything crashed.
In some states they enrolled each and every senior citizens. Then drew lottery to select candidates.
so much for the richest and technologically most advanced nation.
In our hospital, we have enrolled all the staff on roll in the Cowin app the government of India sponsored app to facilitate Covid 19 vaccination. Still 30% HCW who were registered for vaccine, did not turn up inspite of multiple messages sent by the app to their registered mobile. We had to return those vaccines unused.
What waste of manpower and materials simply due to vaccine hesitancy.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 