Social Determinants of Awareness about Covid Vaccine in an Urban Setting

Abstract

As has already been widely noted, the COVID-19 pandemic, a global health concern ofproportion rarely encountered by the humanity in the recent past had created a havoc, mayhem and panicworldwide. The pandemic was triggered by the infectious spread of the Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The corona virus was first traced in an outbreak at Wuhan, aChinese city in December 2019. Owing to several secretive and reticent initiatives and practices by thegovernmental and scientific communities efforts to contain its spread proved futile, as a consequence ofwhich the virus to spread to other parts of Asia and later to the other continents of the world. The WorldHealth Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern(PHEIC) on 30 January 2020. The symptoms of COVID-19 most commonly include fever cough,congestion and fatigue. Most often, the transmission takes place through airborne particles releasedthrough cough and sneeze. In later phase, several mutations of the virus with varying degrees ofinfectivity and virility were observed among the infected people rendering it difficult to diagnose andtreat. As of now, there are no specific antiviral therapies to treat COVID-19, and vaccination isconsidered as the only possible and cost effective measure or intervention to counter the COVID-19infections and its spread. is considered to be one of the most cost-effective health interventions for theprevention and control of the pandemic (1,2,3). It has indeed been noted and is a proved fact that so faras public health is concerned, vaccination has been the most effective means or measure of controllingand mitigating the spread of communicable diseases (4).