First it was the race to find the vaccine. Cartoonist Shadi Ghanim’s take on the race to find a vaccine for Covid-19:
In India, Serum Institute won the race closely followed by Bharat Biotech leaving five other companies behind but, still in the reckoning.
Indian vaccines started going out to various countries who needed it fast, gaining considerable goodwill.
In the meanwhile, Indian citizens over the age of sixty years and 45+ with comorbidities started receiving the vaccine driven by variuos state governments.
Now, the drama started. The social media took over to announce being vaccinated and reports of either no or some side effects. A streamlined online registration process was set up and as I write this, seems to be working very efficiently. I registered last week for being vaccinated at a particular hospital where my GP wanted me to go to, and I have been asked to report on March 30, 2021 to get vaccinated. Others who have already got vaccinated are goading me to just walk in into any nearby hospital and get it done but, I have decided to wait till my appointment comes up.
In the meanwhile, social media has become super active with reports of side effects, efficacy, what can one expect post vaccination etc and the drama continues. From all these, one gathers that despite the vaccination one has to follow the pre vaccination protocols for some more time for the vaccine to take proper effect and this has caused many groans and protests.
I enjoy being on the sidelines and observing the drama.
This is my contribution to this week’s Friday 8 On 1 blog post topic. The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria. Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman , Srinivas and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Maria. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic.