Vaccination

Vaccination is the new buzz word, with the onset of the pandemic the race for vaccine had commenced, Russia was the first off the blocks to announce its Sputnik, but the most promising one appears to be AstraZeneca. This race is akin to a derby, where the punters are betting on their respective products, at stake is the multi-billion dollar earnings expected from the global vaccination of almost 7.8 billion plus. Adar Poonawala and his Serum Institute of India is at the forefront of this drive having tied up with Astra Zeneca. Bharat Biotech's indigenous Covaxin is not far behind.

Vaccination is the panacea against Corona that we all have waited for not so patiently, although the efficacy of these vials is yet to win the confidence of the general populace. We don't have a choice, no dilemma really.......but come to think of it, we never had any choice in the earlier vaccines too. Right from the time of our birth or should I say even before that, when the expectant mothers received their share of jabs to keep us safe even while we were supposedly safely ensconced in the uterus. The saga of vaccines actually commences with TT or Tetanus Toxoid, which is our first introduction to the vaccines through our mothers, of course. However, it is post our arrival that we are subjected to this inhuman torture, where our tiny little upper arms are pricked repeatedly at short intervals by the doctor or the nurses' needles for BCG, Hepatitis, DPT and MMR. This prick manifests itself later in life with the mortal scare of this medical fraternity, where many tigers are at their mercy. More often than not, it is the mothers who shed more tears than the new born infant on these occasions. The poor unsuspecting bloke is brought here, innocently and curiously gaping at everything, till the prick is delivered, shell shocked at this rather painful turn of events he can't reconcile nor forgive anyone associated with this crime. The worst part is, it is not a one off event, it just keeps recurring and doesn't let go even in our adulthood. Some of us have also been the recipient of the anti-rabies vaccine having annoyed the canines into digging into our flesh sometime or the other in our lives. It is all the more painful when it is your own pet, which is responsible. Pet parents are used to the yearly vaccinations for their dogs or cats. While most pets are trained and accept this ritual as one of those irritants which has to be endured, it wasn't so for Buddy, our Lab who would ensure that the Vets had to be changed every year with his antics, as once bitten the vets were not twice but always shy.

In the vernacular, vaccination is referred to as 'Tikakaran', which is similar to the tika applied on the forehead by the Pandit as a blessing on the forehead to arm you against evil eyes and bless you to be victorious. So tika actually is a life saver, as goes the punch line in the Oral Polio vaccine drive "Do boond zindagi ki". The most successful vaccination drive in the world which has eradicated Polio from our country. The success stories also include Small pox, which incidentally traces its origin to Cow pox, as Edward Jenner the pioneer of vaccines discovered and took fluid from the Cow pox blister to immunise the first kid against Small pox in 1798. In fact, the word vaccine itself owes its origin to 'Variole vaccinae' the term used for Cow pox... (Holy cow!)

In India vaccination is too huge an affair not to be politicised and so we have the BJP vaccine being derided and an SP vaccine promised to deliver. During the Emergency a drive for forced sterilisation was undertaken, referred to as 'Nasbandi', rendering the rural population especially vulnerable to these babus who had individual targets of sterilisation to achieve and for them every male young, adult or old was fair game. Sure enough rumour mongering against the supposed side effects of Covid vaccine resulting in impotence have started doing the rounds. The challenges thus are huge.

We in the armed forces have no option but to undergo this pin prick at regular intervals, the TAB, TT were administered whenever we ended up sustaining bruises or yearly during the Annual Medical Examination. The UN tenure is preceded by hosts of vaccines, as Africa is home to many ailments such as Yellow Fever apart from the usual TAB, TT, DPT etc.

The vaccination drive rolled out from 16th Jan. I was wondering as to why should it roll as rolls for we in the Army signifies the commencement of yet another session of 'ragda'. It always started with innocuous "get rolling"; as a reflex action even today after almost four decades, hearing the word 'roll' immediately beckons us to get rolling...wonder why vaccines have to roll out, why can't they just walk, run, jump, dive or crawl. Unlike the academy where one could front roll and back roll or dive roll, here it is just roll out, i.e. there is no turning the clock back, once the deed is done you are on a roll.... hurrah no more masks, social distancing or any other restrictions, the world is desperately hoping to restore the status quo ante!