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As India achieved an important milestone by vaccinating over 60 crore countrymen with Covid-19 jabs, National Vice President of BJP, Baijayant Panda on Monday gave a befitting reply to the loud vaccine distrust in the country once fuelled by some prominent public figures.
"More than 600 million vaccine doses have been administered to people in India so far. Over half of the country's population have received at least a single jab which is what some of the advanced powerhouses including the United States have been able to achieve," Panda pointed out during an interview to OTV.
"Apart from that, our numbers are much higher. So, on an absolute scale, half of our population is in fact double the size that of the US. This is a tremendous achievement for all of us. We should take pride of the fact and encourage more people to come forward and mandatorily take vaccines at their own turn," said the former Parliamentarian from Odisha.
He further stated that it is quite extraordinary to see how Bharat Biotech and other vaccine manufacturers were able to produce vaccines at such a massive scale to meet the entire country's demand and, “this is a huge feat in itself.”
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Panda however lamented the disdainful initiative by some vested interests who tried to raise questions over the national-welfare initiative.
The senior BJP leader candidly pointed out that sadly many prominent people in public life, including those in politics and other fields had mocked the vaccine development programme and raised fears in the minds of people.
“Despite fanning of such negative narrative about vaccination, what is particularly ironic is that many such personalities readily vaccinated themselves quietly and surreptitiously to stay safe. However, they promoted vaccine hesitancy in public sphere which is sad and unfortunate,” said Panda.
India has so far administered around 63.43 crore anti-Covid jabs. The country created a new record by administering around 1.03 crore doses in a single day on August 27.
