Tag: pfizer

Posted in Political

The Antivaxxers Theory.

Posted on by veeskitchen

I don’t know about the antivaxxer community in the US. I guess, the men and women who refuse to get vaccinated in America are more bothered about violation of their physical body, not wanting unknown foreign substance in their system. The Americans are known for upholding individual rights or freewill. What about India. There seems to be a lobby working even here who are against vaccinations. One religious group in Kerala for instance reportedly have not been administering even polio drops to their infants. It is this group that is the fastest growing population in the entire nation with highest fertility rates. Imagine the damage that is waiting to befall on us should things go wrong. We have been believing, polio has been abolished from Indian soil. The same group could be a reason for unbelievable number of Covid cases in the state (refusing vaccines) although their communist government would like to shift the blame to gulf-returnees. The fact is that, every single expatriate working in middle east has been vaccinated far earlier than resident Indians. We may be going for a booster dose shortly. Chances of NRIs bring the coronavirus from Arab countries to India must be very slim. The ruling state government of Kerala probably would not want to point fingers.

India has had an ambitious immunization drive in the last few decades. There is an interesting angle to antivaxxers case in India. Most Indian adults of voting age have been brought under the tax net by Modi govt with Aadhar and PAN linking. Or in short, a lot of regularizing or streamlining of the Indian economy has been happening ever since the BJP govt took over for the first time in 2014. This means, individual identities can not be easily forged although this is happening in sporadic cases. There have been instances of procuring Aadhar in our north east sister states by illegal insurgents. Barring these isolated cases, there is no scope for hiding in loopholes denying your existence in India anymore. Every single Indian citizen is now brought under one legal umbrella where he/she is accountable for his/her actions. Accountable to every penny. There is still however a small percentage of our population who can escape the trap by filing form 15G etc., or not filing any returns at all. There are housewives (like me even) and small-salaried who do not pay income taxes (for earning nil or minimum untaxable incomes) yet. Then there are the jobless. There are the preteens from who we have a miniscule percent of juvenile delinquents. There are private practitioners of various professions, trades and arts. There is a burgeoning lower middle-class. There is this huge chunk of blue colour population. While all these may have their Aadhar identity, they may not necessarily have a PAN. Apart from Aadhar, India allows for numerous other IDs such as the Driving Licence (DL),Voters ID, Passport etc., for identification and address verification. A second set of IDs of secondary nature are our LPG bills, Phone bills etc., that we may pay for utility.

What the Covid vaccination does is, bringing into record the entire Indian population with their legal IDs. When I first registered for my first Covishield in India, I was asked to produce my Aadhar card. For my second dose, the first used ID was rejected. I had to necessarily flash my second ID for which I used my Voter card. I have now added my passport to my Vaccine certification. So in effect, three of my IDs have been effectively linked to my covid vaccine certificate by our Modi government! Very smart! An irrefutable proof of individual IDs or Indian citizens in this case is established. Illegal residents such as Bangladeshis in India will have to work double hard to sieve through this tight closing net. Any foreign national on the run in India cannot for long disappear. A main reason for anti-vaccine community to gain grounds is supposedly this, although our leftists would like to term it all yet another case of deprivation of individual liberty.

Number of conspiracy theories are doing rounds about covid vaccine records and stats. Sometimes even the skeptical me would wonder whether plans are afoot to depopulate Planet Earth!

Normally, I am opposed to vaccines. As someone born in late 60s, the only vaccine I took was for Small Pox which is long since eradicated from Indian soil. I vaguely recall my school giving me annual Malaria shots when it poured cats and dogs for successive monsoons in the early 80s. I haven’t even taken the anti-hepatitis shots although the men in my family have. Covid vaccine is my first serious vaccine really.

It is also true that not only is it in India, but in entire world the masses will be profiled undoubtedly with the vaccine information we provide to our governments. Our age bracket, our medical history, our indisputable IDs all give our sleuths voluminous material to grade us or track us. I just cannot dismiss the book 1984 by George Orwell out of my mind. I do feel like collared sometimes, tagged, like we radio-collar the wild animals in the bush or the cattle and sheep that graze in grasslands. Someone, our big brother, is watching. However, I relax in the thought that I have nothing to hide or lose. I am transparent and I have no reason to fear my government or law and order. I am not that worried about individual freedom that I wouldn’t want to comply with safety regulations which are for my own physical wellbeing. I have to stay alive to argue about suppression of human rights! Corona has me pinned to the floor. I have no choice but to go with my govenment.

The data that we file such as our vaccination records that carry our ID information and other private details such as previous medical history also is now going global as we fly to our destinations worldwide. We sign documents online and we register in various portals as we have to take off and land in different airports. We have downloaded covid apps in practically every single country and the bluetooth surveillance tracks our every move. We need permit to enter any space. Connecting the dots, I can hazily make out a global consensus on earth’s population. Classified data! Mindblowing stats which may otherwise be impossible to collect! How many inferences to intrapolate and extra-polate with all those jumbled figures! So what are they going to with all these numbers???

Sometimes I am glad that we have someone showing resistance at all to anything and everything. This could be a very small percentage but we need this kind of naysayers for our own benefit. We don’t know what lies ahead. We are instilled with a fear our parents and grandparents never knew in their lifetimes: the fear of the unknown.

As I blog this, the latest variant Omicron is hitting headlines around the world. One more story of negativity and psychological terror. Will we ever know normal times again? When will we achieve the herd immunity.

Many in India and the US criticize anti-vaxxers but covid vaccine is not in the same class as polio drops. There is a world of difference between the two. We need extensive research on certain issues that our media would not deliberately pickup. I am sick of the Indian tv channels that have become the mouthpiece of those in power. Real debates are not happening, what must be discussed is not spoken about.

Not even national security is strong enough reason to collect individual data the way world nations have been piling on since March 2020. Meanwhile covid is still here. How many more booster shots, nobody knows. How many more forms to fill and sign in, who knows. The only thing we haven’t affixed so far in our covid certificate is our right thumb impression.

************

Why are Indian mothers worried. My friend’s healthy daughter in her twenties in India went for double shots spaced out. She was having regular periods until then right from her menarche. Ever since taking her covid shots, the girl is having irregular periods. Her second dose was months back. After 6 months lapse finally her cycle is falling back into regular pattern. First 3 months, nothing. So is there a connectivity at all with covid vaccine and fertility. Research in this area vital with figures collected for conceptions made by couples after administration of both doses of covid vaccine.

Posted in Political

India rolls out Covid 19 Vaccine to Public today.

Posted on by veeskitchen

Despite the opposition scheming and despite the media junkies criticizing the govt and spreading false information, India is rolling out the local manufacture Moderna vaccine today for Covid 19 all across the nation. The frontline warriors in health sector and those serving the community such as the police service will be receiving the first batch of shots. Later on, the vaccination will be available to public on demand. I don’t need media guys telling me what to do and when to do. These are the least fit na-layaks to certify anything good and/or worthwhile. My friend who is a experienced medico practising in the US took two shots of Pfizer vaccine and developed (expected) symptoms after the second doze administered after a 28 day gap. She is asking me to go for both dozes that are modified for both the strains of covid-19, and I need no other prescription than this to go for the vaccination. Will do it as and when time permits. Whether we have co-morbid health conditions or not, once you cross 45 or 50 years, I feel we are in a vulnerable age already. Some of us attract infections easily. Women especially have a weaker immune in my thinking. I may or may not be right. I am taking Kabasura kudineer on weekly basis, lemon-ginger-tulsi-garlic-amla concoctions everything which I have been taking all my life, not just because of corona scare. Only now all this is suddenly projected so much as immunity builder to us Indian families. We are doing it for ages. Turmeric, cinnamon, cloves – can’t imagine life without these.

Hopefully we leave 2020 psych totally behind with the vaccine and start fresh life once again. Heartening to read our Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu’s address to the nation on the launch of the vaccine to Indian public. I will do a copy-paste job.

“COVID Vaccination DriveToday is a red-letter day for the people of the country. India has scripted history by touching a new milestone in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic with the Prime Minister, Shri Narendrabhai Modi launching the world’s largest vaccination drive. Two Indian manufactured vaccines, cleared for emergency use, will inoculate an estimated 3,00,000 healthcare workers with the first dose today. This is a proud moment for every Indian and I would like to convey my deepest appreciation to all the scientists for the remarkable speed with which the vaccines were developed in a record time. It is pertinent to point out here that it takes several years before a vaccine rolls out to reach people at large, after the successful completion of all trials at all the stages.In recent memory, there was no other medicine or vaccine for which the entire world waited with such anxiety and restlessness as it did for the vaccines for Sars-Cov2, which are being rolled out in some countries.I am happy that the Union Government and all the States are coordinating this immunization programme in a truly ‘Team India’ spirit as more than 1.65 crore doses of #Covishield and #Covaxin have been allocated to the States and Union Territories in accordance with their requirements. The Centre and the States worked in a mission mode to complete the dry runs and take care of the logistics and the required infrastructure.The Centre and States deserve our compliments and appreciation for this synergy and for working in sync to ensure smooth completion of this mammoth task. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, India like the rest of the world had faced massive disruption to the economy and the livelihoods of people, even as the novel coronavirus claimed thousands of lives and stretched healthcare systems of the most developed countries, as also ours, to their limits. Hopefully, the days of uncertainty and anxiety will end soon. Motivated by the ‘Atma Nirbhar’ Bharat call given by the Prime Minister, our scientists have risen to the occasion. Their efforts were ably complemented by our frontline COVID warriors- healthcare workers, sanitation workers, police and others who never gave up and walked the extra mile to protect all of us. Today, their patience and hard work have paid off. The country, as a whole, will soon reap the benefits of the efforts of these patriotic men and women. Around 3 crore health and other frontline workers will be covered in this phase—they include doctors, nurses, paramedics and other support staff. Apart from them, police personnel and paramilitary personnel, Home Guards, Disaster Management volunteers, municipal workers, Revenue Officials and other Jawans involved in the containment of the virus will be vaccinated. The same vaccine will be given as the second dose after 28 days. In the second phase, people above the age of 50 and those with co-morbidities will be vaccinated. Apart from them, people living in areas with high infection rates will be vaccinated in this phase. While the launch of the immunization drive is a big morale booster, I would like to appeal to the people, including those vaccinated, to not lower the guard in the fight against COVID-19. Everyone must continue with the ‘social vaccine’- of wearing masks, washing hands regularly, and maintaining a safe distance from others.I would also like to urge all the officials involved in the administration of the vaccine to strictly follow the comprehensive list of do’s and don’ts to avoid any untoward incident. The instructions include specifications regarding dosage, cold chain storage requirements, contra-indications and minor AEFIs (Adverse event following immunisation). As mentioned earlier, vaccine development entails a prolonged scientific process as it has to pass through all the stages of clinical and human trials involving thousands of volunteers. It is truly a feat worthy of our appreciation that the government acted with remarkable speed in completing various aspects like prioritizing the target groups, conducting dry runs, preparing the database of healthcare workers, training the vaccinators, delivering the vaccinations to the final administering sites safely, storing the vaccines in cold storages, and evaluating and monitoring the situation on a real-time basis through the Co-WIN network and central helpline. Undoubtedly, tireless efforts have gone into ensuring smooth operations till the last mile. My heartfelt regards to the field workers, health professionals, scientists, volunteers and the officials for their indefatigable efforts in fast-tracking the entire process and bringing to fruition the two Indian manufactured vaccines.India has developed a reputation as a world leader when it comes to immunization. The latest experience in developing a vaccine in record time only adds to that legacy. We have already done a fantastic job in the export of medical equipment to fight COVID-19- from PPE kits, N-95 masks and ventilators to other countries. It is not just the developing world, but the developed world too which looks up to us now as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’.We must build on this momentum and become the vaccinators for the world too in the true Indian spirit of treating the entire world as one family—‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. We have already offered support to our neighbouring countries with COVID-19 vaccine. Soon, as the domestic demand is met and with ramping up of production, we can match and deliver to the global demand too. I am sure that today’s drive will serve as a successful template for immunization of the larger population in the coming months. My best wishes to all the people involved in the drive today.”

I trust the Indian physicians/scientists/health workers/community service workers one hundred percent completely. They are by far the best.