If the chaotic state of the Dhaka-based centres for the just concluded mass vaccination drive is any indication, the appalling condition at the venues in smaller cities can be understood. As an area, Khulna region is identified among the covid-19 ravaged places in the country. At the same time, the vastness of the number of vaccine-seeking people in the divisional headquarters --- Khulna, can also be grasped. The rush of people due to the facility of getting vaccinated without being registered and their defiance of health protocols have become the new normal, at least for now. But the shocking incident of a young man and a 73-year-old lady getting two vaccine doses each in a gap of one minute in Khulna defies credulity. The youth got the jabs on August 10, the old lady on August 7.
This is what has happened at a large government hospital in the Khulna divisional centre. Initially dumbfounded and too perplexed to demand an explanation from the on-duty vaccinators, the 36-year-old later appeared to be a youth not willing to put up with the deviation from normal rule. A news agency report on the incidents says, prior to the vaccine, the young man was asked by the on-duty nurse if he had been suffering from high blood pressure. On hearing his reply in the negative, the nurse administered the first dose on his left arm. After just one minute, another nurse administered the 2nd dose on the same arm. Upon enquiring about the deviation from normal practice, the nurses kept mum pretending to be getting engaged in vaccination of the others in line. The youth began getting the 'reactions' soon.
On query, the Civil Surgeon said stray mistakes might occur as they were administering vaccines on hundreds of people. He was apparently firm in his assertion that the hospital was mistake-proof. The fate of the old lady has yet to be known. As has been seen on many such occasions, defensive alibis are on hand if a hazardous situation crops up as a result of ignorance and nonchalance on the part of the medics and medical volunteers. In the present two cases, both the nurses appear to be insufficiently trained or appallingly rookie. Or they thought they would somehow be able to get away with their adventurous vaccine mission. They may have forgotten that the gap between two doses should be two months at the minimum. Their act amounts to trifling with the physical wellbeing of the people coming forward enthusiastically to get inoculated against Covid-19.
The Khulna incident serves as a forewarning about the wrong, and thus hazardous, corona inoculation to be operated by untrained vaccinators in the remote rural areas. The country has become more or less seasoned with the Indian Astra-Zeneca vaccines. But newer and different types of jabs have also arrived. They might not be as easily absorbed by the vaccinated people as had been the case with the earlier vaccines. Unwarranted health complications following faulty administering of the new vaccines loom like a troubling threat. Along with urging vaccine-seekers to respect the guidelines on physical distancing during the future mass vaccination campaigns, efforts should continue to train health workers on proper inoculation of people. The health authorities ought not to be oblivious of the fact that Covid-19 and the ever mutating viruses are completely new to this country, and the world. So are the vaccines. Many people have little idea about the proper time-gap between the two doses.