Vaccination Hesitancy Posing a Challenge against Covid-19: Dr Rutsa

Nagaland has taken multiple measures to douse the COVID-19 wildfire that has been spreading across the entire globe killing millions. The State has been consistently deploying its medical workers, doctors, front line workers, District Task Force (DTF), police force along with Para-military units to contain the spread of this deadly virus. With the laid down Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) and other rules and regulations being imposed, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with the state government has been successful in slowing down the spread of the virus.

With the arrival of the vaccines and vaccination campaigns being carried out throughout the nation, a lot of people are now having a sigh of relief. Many have received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as well.

A report issued by Dr Mecituonuo Rutsa of Eden Medical Centre at Dimapur states that vaccine hesitancy is posing as a huge challenge in the fight against COVID-19. It is estimated that a total of a thousand or more people of Nagaland are hesitant towards getting vaccinated with most of them having their own reasons.

Getting vaccinated when a patient is COVID-19 positive is the cause of most deaths since one cannot be vaccinated at all if they are COVID-19 positive. Some patients die after vaccination because of their ill health.

Dr Rutsa also debunked the myth of people dying after getting their first shot of COVID-19 vaccination. She said that most of the patients are ignorant and sarcastic when it comes to COVID-19 infection. They do not wish to accept nor consider that they are infected.

Sometimes the infection is mild and a patient may suffer from mild fever or normal cough or cold. This leads them to believe that they are not COVID-19 positive. The conclusion they make without even testing themselves. Most of them straight away go for vaccination without even testing their COVID-19 status and end up succumbing to their own ordeals.

She further states that getting vaccinated when a patient is COVID-19 positive is the cause of most deaths since one cannot be vaccinated at all if they are COVID-19 positive. Also, some patients die after vaccination because of their ill health since some of them have a history of organ diseases and other major diseases.

Therefore, informing a medical officer before getting vaccinated should be the first priority of a person willing to get vaccinated. She stressed that many people have the intention that they will be cured of COVID-19 if they get vaccinated (when they are still COVID-19 positive) which is very wrong. According to World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine hesitancy among citizens is one of the 10 leading threats to global health.