A study by PGI Chandigarh, on the impact of vaccination against COVID-19, done on policemen of Punjab, should go a long way in removing vaccine hesitancy—still a challenge in the country's universal adult vaccination programme.
Out of 42,720 policemen who received both shots of the vaccine, only two died, which is a death rate of 0.05 per 1,000. This is over 98 per cent success when it comes to saving lives from the pandemic, said V.K. Paul, NITI Aayog representative in the country's COVID-19 task force.
Paul said it was a quick study which did not analyse too many aspects, but it clearly pointed out the importance of vaccines in the fight against the virus.
He said among the 35,856 policemen who received a single dose, there were nine deaths (0.25 per 1,000) while of the 4,868 who did not receive the vaccine, there were 15 deaths (3 per 1,000).
Details of how many of these cops were actually infected, whether they had co-morbidities or how many were seriously ill were not shared. Paul did point out that policemen are front line workers and therefore, in high risk category.
Policemen were among the earliest to be vaccinated after the health care workers when the country rolled out vaccination in a phased manner. Punjab, however, was one of the states which fared poorly in vaccination initially and had been pulled up by the Centre on several occasions for its tardiness.
The study will help the government press the importance of vaccination among the public. Misconceptions and fears, which range from becoming impotent to dying due to vaccination, is an issue which the Centre is grappling with, now that its vaccine supplies are getting steady.
