Get the Covid-19 vaccine – it’s safe

A Bangladeshi-born British scientist, Dr Khondoker Mehedi Akram, is the latest expert to reassure us that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, or Covishield, is safe for use and does not have serious side-effects such as blood clots. In his recent interview with this daily, the scientist reiterated the findings of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), under the European Union, which had dismissed reports of blood clots in Covishield vaccine recipients earlier this month. On March 23, the National Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) committee in India also came to the same conclusion, after having analysed at least 400 major side-effects during the country's ongoing vaccination drive.

While it is normal for people to be apprehensive about new vaccines, meant to prevent a relatively new and deadly disease such as the coronavirus, it is also essential that informed safety reassurances from experts are extensively relayed to the general population. As the number of daily infections in the country is rising exponentially, turnouts at the vaccination centres are not. There are a number of reasons for people not getting the vaccines, not the least of which are the complicated registration process and lack of promotion of the vaccine among the public.

The process of an online registration through the website surokkha.gov.bd is certainly simple, but only for the minority of the population who are able to access and navigate the Internet easily. There is also the issue of many people not having their National Identification (NID) cards, a document that is necessary and not substitutable when registering for the vaccine.

We believe the authorities need to act quickly to dispel misgivings regarding Covid-19 and its vaccine, and that there should also be extensive campaigning to make people more aware about the vaccine's many benefits (which far outweigh its risks and side-effects, according to the EMA). Additionally, the registration process should be made far simpler than what it is now, so that those in rural and remote areas are also able to be inoculated. At the end of the day, the goal should be to get most of the population vaccinated against this deadly infection as quickly as possible.