India Coronavirus Dispatch: Vaccine volunteers say the risk was worth it

Is the Pfizer vaccine the right fit for India, celebrity ambassadors to drum up interest in vaccinations, how herd immunity works-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

‘It was worth taking the risk’ — Why Covid vaccine volunteers signed up for trials

As the world awaits a Covid-19 vaccine with bated breath, the contribution of vaccine trial participants, which has been crucial to the entire process, has often gone unnoticed.

Thousands of these faceless participants volunteered to get injected with the trial vaccine candidates in the past few months across the world, with the sole intention of bettering science — even at their own peril. But what motivated them to participate? Read more here

Celebrity ambassadors, the rulebook for states — how govt plans to tackle Covid vaccine hesitancy

A Covid-19 vaccine is still some time away, but the Government of India is already looking at options like roping in ‘ambassadors’ to deal with possible vaccine hesitancy. The health ministry is in the process of drawing up detailed guidelines for states on the vaccine rollout that will also deal with vaccine hesitancy. However, all citizens will have a choice on whether to take the vaccine or not. Read more here

UK Okays Pfizer Covid vaccine, but is it the right fit for India?

The United Kingdom has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for rollout from next week. Will it reach India? Don’t get too happy that this vaccine will reach us In India in the near future, it won’t, says Dr Shahid Jameel, Virologist and Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University. The development is, nevertheless, good from the point of view that it has proven a concept. Read more here

Herd immunity and who gets the vaccine first

When a large subset of a population is immune to a disease, it can provide protection to the 'herd' that is not immune. That threshold, when herd immunity kicks in, is different for each infectious disease and can vary from 50 to nearly 100 percent. What determines this threshold is what’s called the R Nought or R0 (rate of transmission). The more the R0, the greater the immunity threshold.  

For instance, if you take polio and smallpox, the R0 was 5-7. And the herd immunity threshold was 80-85 percent of the population. Being a very severe disease, it has taken us 100 years to achieve that, not through acquired immunity via infections, but through vaccines. Read more here

Beware Covid-19, superhero Priya and her flying tiger Sahas are here

In the fourth edition of the comic book series revolving around the animated superhero Priya, the new enemy is invisible and insidious but not invincible – the coronavirus.

In Priya’s Mask, Priya and her flying tiger Sahas get involved with efforts to rein in Covid-19. Priya also forms an alliance with Pakistani superhero Burka Avenger to defeat Covid-19. Priya’s Mask has been released both in book form and as an animated short film. The animated film based on the book features the voices of Vidya Balan, Mrunal Thakur, Sairah Kabir and Rosanna Arquette. Read more here

10-15% Covid-19 patients may have only gastrointestinal symptoms, say AIIMS doctors

Around 10 to 15% Covid-19 patients have only gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea rather than cough, breathlessness or sore throat, said All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctors at the National Grand Round, a virtual platform for doctors to discuss trends and treatments for the disease. Covid-19 patients may also suffer heart attack, stroke, clotting problems, kidney or liver dysfunction, the doctors said while discussing the impact of the illness on organs other than lungs. Read more here