NEW DELHI: A survey among medical students has revealed that nearly 11%, or one in 10, of them were hesitant to take Covid-19 vaccine owing to worries over its safety and efficacy, hurried testing of vaccines prior to launch and lack of trust in government agencies. The survey was carried out by researchers at AIIMS-Jodhpur among over 1,000 undergraduate medicates across 22 states. It also found that choosing between the two available vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — was considered important both for themselves and their future patients.
Covishield was preferred over Covaxin by students. The vaccination drive prioritised healthcare workers, which included medical students in the first phase. Although provided free of charge, there has been no option for the health workers to choose between the two vaccines.
In many states, the pace of vaccination was rather slow initially with anecdotal evidence suggesting that doctors and medical students were sometimes most reluctant to take the shot as compared to other staf fers in health facilities.
In India, nearly 73 lakh of the estimated 1 crore healthcare workers have now taken the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and about 43 lakh have completed their vaccination schedule by taking the second doses.
The latest survey, which was carried out between February 2 and March 7, also found that the majority of those willing to take the vaccine felt that it was important for them to resume their clinical posting, face-to-face classes and get their personal life back on track.
“The real concern regarding adverse events appeared to be from the possible ‘long term’ effect of the vaccine,” noted the survey, adding that this was coupled with the apprehension that the vaccines had not been tested rigorously enough to determine all possible adverse events and efficacy in a proper manner.