As we know that entire world is suffering from the deadly attack of COVID 19 pandemic. Due to spread of this zoonotic viral infection millions of deaths have been reported across the world. In our country, we lost the 1.4 millions of precious lives due to this pandemic. Now the rate of this spread is gradually declining but still the nightmare of this deadly virus is present in our population. Beside the precious life of humans on this planet, this virus has engulfed the economies of many developed and developing nations. Due to lockdown and other restrictions activity people suffered huge losses in their business and profession. School-going children had faced lot of hurdles and chaos due to this unwanted catastrophe. Now the announcement of manufacturing of COVID vaccine has changed the mindset of people. A sigh of relief is felt by the victims of this pandemic across the world. Many nations have claimed that they have invented the anti- COVID vaccine to give relief to the people of their country. Pfizer a multinational pharmaceutical is among the leading companies who claimed for the invention of anti-COVID vaccine. It’s trail has been started in UK and other nations of the world. Many other countries like Russia, China etc have also claimed that they have invented the anti-COVID vaccine. Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at an unprecedented minus 70 degree Celsius. For that there is an urgent need of special ice chambers and deep-freezer facility. It is a great challenge for every country to provide such kind of facilities in their medical stores and other places. In our country, where the medical facilities are not in such an advanced position as compared to other advance nations of the world, it is very difficult to provide the necessary storage facility for this vaccine. Topography of India is very inaccessible for the immediate delivery of such vaccines to the doorstep of every individual. Mostly in rural India, it is very difficult to arrange such storage facilities in medical stores for the safety and longevity of these vaccines. Now the COVID pandemic has entered in almost every corner of our country. The concept of mass immunisation with such kind of sophisticated and exceptional vaccine is a very challenging exercise for our country. Our pharmacies have not such kind of freezer facility and other storage units which can store such kind of vaccines. Our health care centers are already suffering from the shortage of necessary basic aids and other sophisticated medical equipments. Moreover there will be need of a large number of medical experts to run this mass programme of vaccination in our country. No doubt a lot of frontline workers and corona warriors are already giving their services in the country day and night, but for this mega vaccination drive there is need of many more health volunteer. We can’t made the selective approach in this vaccination drive programme, because we know that this is a viral infection and can spread again with same severity if a single infected person is present in our community. We must keep in mind that the infection of this virus had started from a single person and can’t fully eradicate till the last infected person is present in our population. So, there is need to launch a programme of whole population immunisation drive. Only then we can break the chain of this infection and get rid from this man-made devastation. Besides medical obstacles many other challenge are also found in our country. There is lack of awareness among illiterate masses of our country. Some ignorant people believe that there is nexus or conspiracy of some nations behind this vaccination programme. They think that these vaccines will create other health ailments and complications after some time. Some ignorant people deliberately mislead the other ignorant people and create chaos and confusion in their mind to derail this mega immunisation Programme. There is an urgent need to build a transparency and trust among people before launching such kind of immunisation programme at mass level. Another great hurdle for this immunisation programme in our country is our vast size of population. To vaccinate 1.3 billion people is a herculean task. There is need of more than one doze in this immunisation programme which means double the number of vaccines are required for our country. Moreover everyone is not capable to pay the heavy price of these vaccines, which will create economic factor for poor population of the country. Even government has announced the free vaccination programme in some states as it’s political assurance during the election. This will create another problems of discrimination and disparity with other States. If some states will get the free doses of this vaccine other feel resentment against this disparity. No doubt government has already started an advance preparation for this forthcoming challenge. No doubt the attention of entire world is on us that how we tackle this situation. This is a challenge and an opportunity for us to prove our strength in this crucial hour of crisis. Problem of storage, transportation, delivery, medical equipments and healthcare experts are great obstacles in our path. Now the question who will get the first vaccine is totally irrelevant and extraneous. There is an urgent need to extend India’s cold chain capacity to the densely populated areas and across the remotest corner of country. Collabrative efforts of private as well as Government health care centeres are required at this time. Its a time to show our strength and solidarity in front of the world. No doubt problems are many but our firm determination can win the faith of people of our country as well as world.
By Shyam Sudan
