MOHALI: To create awareness about vaccination for the corona pandemic among students & faculty members, a webinar on “COVID-19 Vaccination” was organized at Aryans College of Pharmacy. Dr. S. S. Pandav, chairman COVID-19 vaccination committee, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh interacted with faculty members & the students of B. Pharmacy & D. Pharmacy. The GNM & ANM students of Aryans Institute of Nursing also attended the session. Dr. Anshu Kataria, Chairman, Aryans Group presided over the webinar.
Dr. Pandav, while interacting with the students said that to stop the spread of COVID-19 in community, stay safe by taking some simple precautions, such as physical distancing, wearing a mask, keeping rooms well ventilated, avoiding crowds, cleaning your hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue. Vaccination is a safe and effective way to prevent disease and save lives, now more than ever, he said.
He further said that COVID-19 vaccines are going through a rigorous, multi-stage testing process, including large trials that involve tens of thousands of people. These trials, which include some groups at high risk for COVID-19 are specifically designed to identify any common side effects or other safety concerns. But, rumors are being spread about the efficacy of vaccines & it seems that people are hesitating to get inoculated, he mentioned.
While answering the student’s questions he further discussed that Vaccines reduce risks of getting a disease by working with your body’s natural defenses to build protection. When you get a vaccine, your immune system responds. The vaccine is therefore a safe and clever way to produce an immune response in the body, without causing illness. But it takes two to three weeks to get full immunity after one gets the second dose, he told.
Mr. Krishna Singla, Convener, of the event said that Vaccines are the technology that humanity has relied to bring down the death toll of infectious diseases. To bring this pandemic to an end, the world needs to be immune to this life threatening virus with a vaccine, he stressed.