NEW DELHI – India’s Covid-19 vaccines faced initial problems as fewer people than expected came for their vaccines, leaving the country far behind the pace needed to reach its goal of inoculating 300 million by August.
The lower-than-expected attendance appears to be due to technical problems with the app that notifies people when it is their turn to have an injection and fears about the safety of vaccines that have been developed and approved on an accelerated schedule.
The country gave the first vaccines to about 1.5 million people on Saturday, a week after the launch. That is an average of around 200,000 per day. He would need to manage 1.3 million a day to reach his August target.
India has more government vaccination experience and manufacturing capacity than most countries, and warned that the campaign would start slowly. But in the first week, more than 40% fewer people showed up for injections than expected.
Government officials say they are still resolving the bottlenecks, but the low early turnout among healthcare professionals – the first to receive the vaccine – suggests a much longer-than-expected timeframe for protecting the population through vaccination.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked doctors on Friday for help to reassure people to speed up vaccines. “In making any vaccine, there is the hard work of our scientists and a completely scientific process,” so there is nothing to fear, he said.
Some health professionals say they are still concerned about the possibility of side effects that have not arisen, since vaccines have not been widely used or tested. Some said they already had the coronavirus and hope to be protected by their immune system.
Health professionals said they are reluctant to take the local vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech.
Photograph:
adnan abidi / Reuters
“Ignorance is the breeding ground for hesitation,” and many people are not confident about the two vaccines, which were hastily put on the market, said T. Jacob John, a retired professor of virology at Christian Medical College in the city of Vellore . “The epidemic is at its lowest level now that the vaccine was released, so people are asking, ‘What’s the hurry?’ “
India was one of the places hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than 10 million confirmed infections and 150,000 deaths, but its infection rate has dropped from a high of almost 100,000 a day in September to less than 20,000 a day in recent weeks.
Nurse Jeemol Shaji, who administers the injections at a New Delhi hospital, said that in the early days, about 30 out of every 100 people scheduled went for the injections. She had to throw away the remaining doses that were not used.
The government application to register and notify people about vaccination vacancies had some technical problems, according to the government and vaccine applicators. Problems include delays in notifying people of their appointments. Ms. Shaji said the hospital has started to accept visits.
Israel says it is on track to vaccinate everyone over 16 by the end of March. To understand how the small country vaccinated more of its population than any other so quickly, the WSJ visited clinics that are giving vaccines to young and middle-aged citizens. Photo: Tamir Elterman for The Wall Street Journal
She said she is confident that the injections work, but does not plan to take one immediately because she has recovered from the virus.
“I still have antibodies,” she said. “What is the use of being vaccinated at this time?”
Sunil Arora, physician and secretary general of the New Delhi Federation of Residents’ Association, said health professionals need to set an example, but that many of them are concerned about the rapid approval of vaccines.
“People are taking a wait-and-see approach,” he said. “They are watching other people who received the jab to see if there are any side effects.”
India has given emergency approval for a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca PLC and the University of Oxford, as well as a local vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. Health professionals said they are reluctant to take the local vaccine as it passed fewer tests before being approved.
The AstraZeneca vaccine completed Phase 3 testing and has been approved in several countries besides India, including the United Kingdom. It has not received approval in the USA. The results of the Phase 1 test were published in the medical journal Lancet last week.
India’s Ministry of Health claims to have seen enough data on the two vaccines to make sure they are safe and effective.
The government is publishing a record of all illnesses recorded in people who have been vaccinated in an effort to increase confidence in their safety. Until Saturday, the government recorded 11 hospitalizations and six deaths. Autopsies revealed that none of the deaths were linked to vaccinations.
The government has been promoting the safety and importance of vaccines in speeches and advertisements. Prime Minister Modi and others tell Indians not to worry. The Ministry of Health has bombarded social media with snippets from India’s top doctors about vaccine safety.
“Vaccines have enabled India to win the battle against polio and smallpox,” read a government tweet. “Take your shot, defeat Covid-19.”
Cell phone users hear a public service announcement from the government before their calls are completed, asking them to be vaccinated and not to trust rumors.
The hundreds of thousands of people who have undergone government training to be part of the process are being taught to promote a positive view of vaccines in their interactions with family and social networks.
Indians generally accept vaccines better than people in other countries, research shows. In an October survey of 15 countries, Indians were most likely to say they were ready to get the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it was available. The Ipsos survey showed that 88% of Indians said they were ready, compared to 65% of Americans and 85% of people in China.
“Manufacturers and governments need to support the vaccines they are providing to people and to assure people that these vaccines are safe,” said Deepak Baid, a doctor in charge of a Covid-19 unit at a government hospital in Mumbai.
—Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article.
Write to Eric Bellman at [email protected] and Vibhuti Agarwal at [email protected]
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