NEW DELHI: The nursing staff of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi has taken up the initiative to participate in the trial round of the third phase of Covaxin which is currently underway at the facility.
“People are quite skeptical of taking the vaccine, they are afraid to take the risk. No one is showing the interest to take voluntary participation in the process. We got a message that AIIMS is looking for people to come ahead in the third phase. And this time, the staff were allowed to participate in the process which was not there in the first and second phase,” said Kanishk Yadav, nursing staff.
Kanishk along with three more staff on Monday took the first dose of the indigenous vaccine developed by
Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR. A month ago, AIIMS began the third phase trial of this vaccine with Dr M V Padma Srivastava, the chief of Neurosciences Centre at the premier institute, and three other volunteers receiving the first dose.
However, by mid of December, the institute was falling short of around 1500 volunteers. The administration claimed that till then around 200 people had volunteered while majority are unwilling to participate in the exercise thinking why take part in a trial when a vaccine would be available soon for everybody. Last week AIIMS began advertising seeking volunteers.
“Unless the whole process is complete, how can there be any study on the vaccines...the researchers need to complete the trials. This creates a negative approach and if people hesitate to take vaccines then at the end the government will have to pass orders making it compulsory. I have passed on the message to my colleagues and friends and hoping that around 40-45 people are likely to turn up on Tuesday,” Kanishk noted, who is also Covid warrior and has donated plasma.