Dr Swayam Pragyan Parida is an Associate Professor with the Community Medicine department at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. She also monitors the vaccination centre at the hospital. In an interview with Orissa POST, the expert talks about different facets of COVID-19 vaccination drive. Excerpts:
OP: How does a vaccine work in human beings?
Dr Parida: Vaccines trigger immunogenic response against a particular pathogen when injected. Here, the part of the inactivated pathogen is injected into the human body which doesn’t cause the disease but helps the body to prepare itself to fight against the disease against which the vaccine was given. There are two ways through which people get immunity— one is when they get infected, which is painful and traumatic, and another is getting vaccinated which is least invasive and the easier way.
OP: There are some concerns about the safety of these vaccines among some sections as the vaccines were made in a very short duration. Your reaction to it.
Dr Parida: Yes, these have been made in short duration of time because they were prepared in a way that the different phases of development of the vaccines were done simultaneously. That is why the time was reduced but the quality control mechanism was followed. The only thing is that there were parallel trials of the vaccines of different phases. Emergency use authorization of vaccines has been obtained as there is an urgency to prevent the disease.
OP: Do the vaccines have side effects? Can we be assured of their safety?
Dr Parida: Allergy or any adverse reaction is normal to human being when any outside product enters the body. Several vaccinations, like the COVID vaccines, cause minor reactions in a few people like dizziness, fever and others. In case of the COVID vaccines, there are lesser adverse effects and they are within the safety limits.
OP: Then why do some people develop reactions post vaccination, although the number is small as government data claims?
Dr Parida: It depends on many factors. Constituents of a vaccine act differently in different sets of people. The genetic makeup is different from person to person, and also the psychological conditions. Some people get over-anxious too. So, it depends on the genetic makeup and other health conditions which sometimes show more reaction when an outside object enters into the body.
OP: You handle one COVID vaccination centre at AIIMS. How has been your experience?
Dr Parida: We have seen two types of beneficiaries. One group we find little bit apprehensive of the vaccine while the others accept it without fear. We have undertaken counseling for apprehensive people to make them understand about the vaccine and safety and take them in confidence before vaccination.
OP: Is there any health scrutiny of the vaccine takers?
Dr Parida: Yes. There previous health data, co-morbidities are recorded. They are meanwhile, also asked if they currently suffer from any temporary disease. Only healthy and fit people are given the vaccines. If we find some people aren’t fit for the vaccination, we ask them to come later as per the norms.
Manish Kumar, OP