The last couple of weeks have seen such large crowds at Nagaland’s Covid-19 vaccination centres that state immunisation officer Ritu Thurr described it as a “nightmare”. “They are always calling me and asking why no slots,” said Thurr.
But things were completely different not too long ago, recalled Thurr. Even healthcare workers in the state did not want to get the shot when vaccination began for them in January. The numbers bear that out: till date, almost 40% of the state’s health care workers are yet to be fully vaccinated.
“To be honest, there was a lot of hesitancy in the first and second phase,” said Thurr. Most of it stemmed from “unnecessary social media messages”. “The vaccine carried satanic number, blah blah…very funny funny things,” said Thurr, referring to the contents of the anti-vaccine messages.
Apart from social media misinformation, residents say “prayer warriors” who claim to treat illnesses with a concoction of faith and…