Experience with first dose of covishield

A journey to covid vaccination centre to vaccinate with covishield and its impact

 

Initially, Anand Kumar had least interest in inoculation with the covishield as the first dose was permitted for the people above 18 years old, however, a tweet of an IPS (Indian Police Service) officer said that in the year of 2020, the death was mostly of para-medical staff, doctors, police, senior citizens, etc but in the year of 2021, seldom death news of these people comes because of double dose vaccinations. This tweet has totally removed the fear from Anand Kumar that inoculation may have side effects. After the arrival of the second wave in March 2021, He also found that most deaths reported in the news channels, social media, newspapers and even the report of the government sources are those who are above the age of 18 years and below 60 years old except the double doses inoculated people. Initially, he was not interested in inoculating himself with covid vaccine as the proper trial was not completed due to limitation and urgent requirement.

As the second medical trial was completed and in place of the third trial, inoculation was totally launched among the common men to avoid delay in order to save life. In the first instance, it seems that it was not feasible but very soon it becomes clear that the decision was really compatible. In the meantime, several high level officers of the central government department, state government officers, AIIMS director, doctors, Ministers, renowned persons, etc, came forward to inoculate themselves to boost up the confidence of the common men. 

In a short duration, it really boosted the confidence among the common men and therefore, the crowd in the vaccination centre slowly started increasing. It is really a great step of the government of India and the State Government to create confidence and therefore, he also started searching the process of registration of inoculation. Meanwhile, a neighbour also got inoculated and he found that no side effects occurred to him. He tried many times to register himself for vaccination but in vain due to which he got irritated that the cowin website was not working well. Although R.S.Sharma, chairman of cowin, said in an interview that the cowin website didn’t have any issues and registration for vaccination continued in huge numbers. It shows that the higher level officers of Government of India and state governments always played a crucial role to convince that all issues were properly monitored.

He successfully registered himself on cowin but was unable to get a slot for inoculation. Meanwhile, his sister in law, Anjali, got inoculated with all the in-laws including her husband. His wife, Praveena, asked her sister if she could register his name for inoculation. He planned that firstly he would be inoculated, thereafter, his wife so that his two daughters couldn’t face any problems as there would be his wife to look after them if he did have any side effects. Anjali informed him that a slot had been booked and he would have to visit the vaccination centre on 08.05.2021 and she had sent the address of the centre and time was 9.00 am. 

Anand was happy that he was going to be inoculated the next day. He reached the vaccination centre Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya Deendarpur, South West Delhi around 9.00 am and he found that so many vehicles were parked outside the school. As he parked his car on the side of the road, he thought that he had to wait around one hour to get inoculated. As he reached the gate of the school, he enquired the security guard whether he was at the address and his reply was affirmative which relaxed him a lot as he was a little bit confused for the vaccination centre address. He found that the vaccination centre which was a school was completely changed in a fortress where so many Delhi Policemen were to monitor the crowd. He again enquired the room where he had to go. Meanwhile, a lady constable asked him whether he was registered on the cowin and when his reply was positive. She asked Anand to show the registration, as he showed the registration slip on his mobile, she guided him to go to Room No. 24, Class V. He went there and several civil defence volunteers were standing there with a distance of merely 10 meter. When he reached Room No. 5, he found that three people were in the queue to be inoculated and he also joined them. Within 5 minutes, his turn came and he entered the room where two volunteers were on the computer and one asked his registered mobile number. As Anand mentioned his registered mobile number 87xxxxxxxx, the volunteer checked it on the computer and thereafter, he asked for Anand’s aadhar card. As Anand showed his aadhar card, he noted the aadhar number and address in a notebook as well as on the computer.

In the meantime, Anand found that a middle aged woman, perhaps a nurse as she was not in her dress, was inoculating the people patiently. He received a slip prior to inoculation which is required to show so that the middle aged woman could inoculate him. As he showed the slip, she instructed him in a sweet sound to sit on the stool. As he sat, she mentioned that a covishield would be given to him. He nodded his head to permit her to go ahead, she expertly injected the covishield in his left arm. He felt a small thorn was injected, the pain was meager. She gave him two paracetamol tablets to consume if he had a fever in the evening or the next day.

As he came out from the room, a civil defence volunteer came near and instructed him to wait for 20 minutes and if he didn't have a physical issue, he might leave the camp. As he reached the waiting camp, it was covered with a tent in the open area of the school and fans, water, etc were properly arranged for the inoculated persons. He found that around 50 inoculated people were waiting in the camp and none had any issues. In the meantime, one civil defence volunteer came near Anand enquiring about his name, address, etc; and noted in a notebook. After ten minutes, another civil defence volunteer came to enquire if Anand had any issues and when his reply was negative, he requested Anand to wait at least 20 minutes before leaving the camp. He also guided Anand on how he could download the vaccination certificate from cowin. Anand tried to download the certificate there but didn't get suçcess and therefore he called Anjali to do the same and within 15 minutes she sent the certificate. He didn't have any issues and therefore after 20 minutes, he left the camp. He came back home and when his wife enquired if he had any problems after vaccination, his reply was negative. 

Although he had a little bit of pain in his body. His body didn’t permit him to do any work either in the office or at home.. He felt lazy, sleepy, and he even felt that he might have diabetic symptoms.  Though he avoided going to the diagnostic centre and neither disclosed it to his wife. Within a week, he started feeling well and recovered properly, thereafter, he asked his wife Praveena if she was interested in inoculation and she agreed. Anjali was given the task to get the slot and she informed them very soon that the slot was booked and the vaccination centre was in Najafgarh at 9.00 am. Praveena and Anand reached the centre where both found that it was a little bit over crowded in comparison to Deendarpur. After waiting around one hour in the queue, Praveena entered the vaccination room where she was inoculated and completed the formality of waiting of 20 minutes and received necessary guidance to consume paracetamol if she had any symptoms of fever. As both came back home, after one hour his wife complained that her body was a little bit warm.

She instantly consumed a paracetamol tablet to overcome the fever. It was around 5.00 pm the body temperature rose up to 102 degree. Anand mentioned the issue with an acquaintance, R.S.Nagra, a manager in a pharmaceutical company, and he suggested that a paracetamol tablet should be consumed whenever her body temperature rose. However, Anand used to give a spoon of Powergesic (homoeopathic medicine) three to four times a day in place of paracetamol as it didn't have side effects. Consequently, she was scared, tears started coming out from her eyes to cheek in fear that she didn't survive as her body was not responding well. Anand made all the efforts to convince her that she would recover very soon. As time passed, she overcame it and within a week, her condition improved. Later, Praveena and Anand came to the conclusion that, after the inoculation, the body responds depending upon the immune system of the body. If a person is healthy, he has less or negligible impact on the body, otherwise, one has to face some issues which could be ignored, therefore, it is necessary to inoculate all the citizens of this country so that coronavirus impact can be minimized.

This is the experience of the first dose of covishield and as the government has increased the gap between first and second dose of inoculation, Anand would be inoculated with the second dose in the last week of July 2021. He was eagerly waiting for it.

Initially, the gap between the first and second dose was merely four weeks which was later increased up to 8 weeks further increased up to 12 to 16 weeks. The Government of India claimed that it was more effective if the duration is 12 to 16 weeks as per the experts and research outcomes. No doubt, it may be the reason but the other reason may be that maximum people could be inoculated with the first dose as it would save precious lives. And as the first dose completes, the second dose would be started rapidly. Sometimes, it seems that the systems jeopardises or even sufficient jabs are not available. It is well known that India is a vast country where around 84 crores of people are to be inoculated and therefore, the systems may collapse or jeopardise for a short duration but the commitment of government certainly shows the outcomes that number of covid affected patients reduced from 4 lakh to 40 thousand per day in a short span.

The experience of the first dose of covishield is more or less good and the author would share the second dose experience very soon once inoculated.