Health Minister dispels misgivings about vaccine

Two days before India goes into inoculation mode, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took to twitter to dispel some misgivings about the vaccine. Among the questions he addressed were predictably on the side-effects of the vaccine and whether one can still be infected with Covid as well as the effect of vaccination on the fertility of recipients.

CAN IT CAUSE INFERTILITY?

‘‘There is no scientific evidence to suggest that the vaccine could cause infertility in either men or women. Kindly do not pay heed to such rumours or information from unverified sources," Vardhan said in one tweet. Infertility is not known to occur as a result of Covid-19 disease either.

CAN ONE CATCH CORONA FROM VACCINE?

The second quer y was whether one can catch Covid-19 from the vaccine? The minister clarified that you cannot contract Covid-19 because you have been inoculated, but it is possible to have caught Covid-19 and not realise you have the symptoms until af ter your vaccination appointment.

Temporar y side effects such as mild fever should not be construed as having contracted Covid-19.

WHAT ABOUT SIDE-EFFECTS?

As regards side-effects, he said this was true for many other vaccines as well; some individuals may have side-effects such as mild fever and pain at the site of injection and body ache. However, these side-effects are temporar y and should go away on their own af ter some time. The thrust of his posts was that please trust only official channels of communication of the government to get correct information about Covid-19.

Kindly do not pay heed to rumours or information emanating from unverified sources.