Hospitals fear high vaccine wastage
Bangalore : Data from private hospitals in the city show they barely managed to administer 100 booster doses in the last two days.
Doctors fear high vaccine wastage due to low turnout.
“Very few people are coming. Every hospital is seeing about 20-50, maximum 100 people in a day. We have 2 lakh doses in Karnataka. We’ll be getting additional 6 lakh doses. We hope it’ll be used. If that’s expired, we have to discard it,” said Dr. Prasanna HM, President of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association.
The booster shot program was opened for all adults from Sunday onwards. Citizens who have completed nine months since their second dose are eligible for the same.
The Union government on Sunday capped the prices of Covishield and Covaxin at Rs 225 per dose. It also adds that private hospitals can’t charge more than ₹150 as a service charge.
Citizens question the efficacy of the booster shots.
“Sadly, most of the information we get on science and health, in particular, are being controlled by big pharma companies. That is why I have decided not to take the booster shot because I see it more of a “control on the population” issue than a health issue,” said Benhur Eugene, a vaccine skeptic.
Experts say the lack of fear of COVID is responsible for low turnout.
“Now there is no COVID, which is why people are relaxed. They say if you (they) take it or not, it doesn’t matter anymore and the virus will not infect you. So why take a booster dose? These are the kind of responses we are getting,” Dr. Poornima Jaydeva, a Resident Medical Officer at the Jayanagar General Hospital.
