According to the data released by the Tamil Nadu government, the state had received 78,49,780 vaccines from the Centre till 21st May for vaccinating people above 45 years. It also received 10,62,000 vaccines till 16th May for vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group. The state had received another tranche of 1,90,000 vaccines on 24th May.
However, the vaccination progress in Tamil Nadu has been very slow despite the state getting vaccines at regular intervals from the Centre. When asked about the slow pace of vaccination, Tamil Nadu Health Minister M. Subramanian resorted to playing politics saying that Gujarat had received 14.4% of the vaccines while Tamil Nadu received only 6.4%.
It is to be noted vaccines are not something that can be made in large volumes or bought readily from the open market and sold. Vaccines are on demand all over the world and every country wants more and more. In India, every state needs more vaccines. The Central Government has been allotting enough vaccines to all states as per agreed guidelines set by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) based on production and availability.
While on one hand the DMK government has been claiming vaccine shortage and has been demanding the Centre to allocate more vaccines (which the Centre has been doing), it has conveniently brushed under the carpet the fact that Tamil Nadu has second highest number of vaccines in its stock next only to Uttar Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu which has received more than 86 lakh vaccines (according to May 18 GoI data) has more than 13 lakh vaccines in its stock showing that vaccination is very slow with lots of vaccine stock available with the state.
While M. Subramanian may be right about Gujarat getting more vaccines, what he did not know/tell is that it had only 11,25,236 excess vaccines with it on May 18. It means that Gujarat is vaccinating at a faster pace and very efficiently with less wastage as a result of which the state is getting more vaccines.
Tamil Nadu on the other hand, has one of the highest vaccine wastage. As of May 17, Tamil Nadu had wastage of about 10% of the total vaccine doses supplied to the state. Out of the 77.49 lakh doses, only 69.63 lakh doses were used, which is 90 percent. According to a report by Livemint, vaccine wastage is as high as 15.5% in Tamil Nadu next only to Jharkhand (37.3%) and Chhattisgarh (30.2%). A report by The New Indian Express notes that there is high vaccine wastage in at least more than 10 rural health districts.
All this point towards one fact – low vaccination in Tamil Nadu is not driven by vaccine shortages but because of vaccine hesitancy, thanks to irresponsible politicians and the media in the state.
From questioning the efficacy of made-in-India vaccines to peddling unwarranted fears over an actor’s death, here is a list of political leaders, journalists and social media influencers responsible for the rampant vaccine hesitancy in Tamil Nadu.
MK Stalin
DMK chief and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin during his election campaign continuously kept fear mongering about vaccines. In one of the ‘gram sabha meet’ organized as part of his election campaign in Maduravoyal, Chennai he said “They are news coming about vaccines. We don’t know if it is 100% success. It will be known only later. The Prime Minister has not taken it (vaccine). The Chief Minister (Edappadi K. Palaniswami) has not taken it. Some doctors are taking it. A few others are taking it. Because, it is just like they are testing (on doctors and other people).”
Dayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Maran in Parliament said that the companies which produce vaccines (Covaxin and Covishield) did not follow proper procedure and did not do proper tests. He also raised concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine.
In another instance, he had said that there is a discomfort and people do not trust the vaccine because of the efficacy adding that the Prime Minister should take the vaccine shot in public view.
Thol. Thirumavalavan
VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan resorted to stoking fear about vaccination for COVID. In his social media post, Thirumavalavan said that the demise of the actor ‘has raised many questions’ and added that there is a fear among people as it was after taking the vaccine that the actor fell unconscious. “The government should clarify this. My condolences to the actor”, the Chidambaram MP said in his tweet.
He also urged the Tamil Nadu government to avoid the use of Covaxin, saying that the vaccine had not completed phase 3 trials. He even went on to say that the Indian companies manufacturing vaccines were using people as ‘guinea pigs’.
In an interview to a Tamil YouTube channel, VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan says that he is not against vaccines and that he himself has taken 2 doses of Covishield but goes on to make unsubstantiated claims about vaccines. He says that people are having fear about the vaccines while it was public personalities like him who had correlated actor Vivekh’s death with him taking vaccines. He says that it was the responsibility of the government to address such fears. He also goes on to say that AIIMS doctor themselves have noted that there is a chance of people getting heart attack after taking vaccine.
Seeman
Speaking to reporters during a press meet in January 2021, Seeman went on an anti-vaccine propaganda saying that many of his ‘doctor’ friends across the world have told him to not to take the vaccine. “Corona is not like cholera or small pox. It is working in different ways (mutation). In that case, this vaccine is for which one? What are the after effects of taking the vaccine? They are doing this for politics. That is why I am saying, don’t vaccinate your children. I know a lot of well-known doctors in America, Britain etc. They are telling me not to get vaccinated or let others vaccinate. They tell that no matter what, don’t vaccinate.”
Sumanth Raman
Dr. Sumanth Raman posted a tweet in which he tried to stoke fears linking actor Vivekh suffering a heart attack with him getting vaccinated for COVID on April 15.
In the tweet Sumanth Raman said “If I remember correctly @Actor_Vivek had his #covid vaccine yesterday. Too early to say if there was any link with his illness today. Wishing him a speedy recovery. #vivek”.
After his tweet received backlash, Sumanth put another tweet saying that ‘science is important’
Communist Dr. Ravindranath
During a press meet in January 2021, Dr. Ravindranath, a card-carrying communist who also participates in debates of Tamil News channels, said that the reason the Government of India was hastening the process of roll out of vaccines was to grab the international market for vaccines and help the two companies (SII and Bharat Biotech) earn profits.
Tamil Media and YouTube Channels
1) The above video of Ravindranath which posted in the Tamil YouTube Channel ‘Red Pix’ was titled as ‘COVID vaccine – corporate race between COVISHIELD & COVEXIN’ and has got more than 12000 views. Red Pix channel has more than 1.72 million subscribers. There are so many such videos of Red Pix with click bait titles that peddles fears about vaccines.
2) News 7 Tamil, a mainstream news channel put out a video of a doctor clarifying doubts about the vaccine. Though the doctor in this video says that taking the vaccine will not cause heart attack, the video has been titled “Vaccines cause heart attack? Famous cardiologist explains”. When read in Tamil, the question mark is sure to evoke scepticism about the vaccines.
3) LMES (Let’s Make Engineering Simple) came out with a click bait title for their video “Will Corona vaccine kill us?”
4) Puthiya Thalaimurai, another popular mainstream news channel had covered actor Vivekh’s press meet on April 15 who had taken the vaccine at the Omandurar Hospital. This video was titled “Even if you put vaccine, corona will come.. but”. This video has got 6.8 lakh views. Apart from this, the channel has fear mongered about vaccines various times. On January 17, it posted a video with the titled “52 people in Delhi who took vaccine get side effects”. This video got 5.72 lakh views. On January 18, they posted another video with the title “447 people who took corona vaccine get side effects” which has garnered 2.16 lakh views.
5) Behindwoods YouTube channel had come up with the idea of using a celebrity for spreading awareness about vaccines. In this video, actor Karthi discusses with a popular doctor about vaccines. However, the video was given a misleading title “Which vaccine is good?” when the message has to be any vaccine is good.
6) When actor Vivekh was admitted to hospital due to cardiac arrest, this is what Red Pix posted – “Tamil comedy actor Vivek who took the Covid vaccine admitted to hospital”. The video got more than 1.13 lakh views.
7) Sun News, the DMK family owned channel was even worse. This is what they peddled in the months of January and February:
- “99 people who took corona vaccine get side effects” – The video posted on January 17 has got more than 2.25 lakh views
- “Man who took corona vaccine dies” – The video posted on February 10 has got more than 93,000 views
- “Skip vaccination if you don’t like” – This was the title for the news posted on January 29 in which the Madras High Court had dismissed a petition that sought a ban on Covishield and Covaxin.
8) BBC News Tamil put out a video trying to bust the myths surrounding the vaccine. This was the title “Pork mixed in vaccine? Will corona vaccine cause impotence? What is the truth?”.
9) Thanthi TV had put a news titled “Man dies after taking corona vaccine” on April 25.
10) As early as February, The News Minute gave space to an article about a man named Riaz filing a writing petition in the Madras High Court alleging that his health deteriorated and that he had acute neuro encephalopathy days after taking the vaccine.
Today, as Tamil Nadu grapples with the second wave of the virus with people gasping for breath and bodies queuing in crematoriums, I wonder how these people are able to sleep peacefully every night.
The article is based on the tweets of @Tamil_Hindu1
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The enablers of vaccine hesitancy in Tamil Nadu
According to the data released by the Tamil Nadu government, the state had received 78,49,780 vaccines from the Centre till 21st May for vaccinating people above 45 years. It also received 10,62,000 vaccines till 16th May for vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group. The state had received another tranche of 1,90,000 vaccines on 24th May.
However, the vaccination progress in Tamil Nadu has been very slow despite the state getting vaccines at regular intervals from the Centre. When asked about the slow pace of vaccination, Tamil Nadu Health Minister M. Subramanian resorted to playing politics saying that Gujarat had received 14.4% of the vaccines while Tamil Nadu received only 6.4%.
It is to be noted vaccines are not something that can be made in large volumes or bought readily from the open market and sold. Vaccines are on demand all over the world and every country wants more and more. In India, every state needs more vaccines. The Central Government has been allotting enough vaccines to all states as per agreed guidelines set by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) based on production and availability.
While on one hand the DMK government has been claiming vaccine shortage and has been demanding the Centre to allocate more vaccines (which the Centre has been doing), it has conveniently brushed under the carpet the fact that Tamil Nadu has second highest number of vaccines in its stock next only to Uttar Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu which has received more than 86 lakh vaccines (according to May 18 GoI data) has more than 13 lakh vaccines in its stock showing that vaccination is very slow with lots of vaccine stock available with the state.
While M. Subramanian may be right about Gujarat getting more vaccines, what he did not know/tell is that it had only 11,25,236 excess vaccines with it on May 18. It means that Gujarat is vaccinating at a faster pace and very efficiently with less wastage as a result of which the state is getting more vaccines.
Tamil Nadu on the other hand, has one of the highest vaccine wastage. As of May 17, Tamil Nadu had wastage of about 10% of the total vaccine doses supplied to the state. Out of the 77.49 lakh doses, only 69.63 lakh doses were used, which is 90 percent. According to a report by Livemint, vaccine wastage is as high as 15.5% in Tamil Nadu next only to Jharkhand (37.3%) and Chhattisgarh (30.2%). A report by The New Indian Express notes that there is high vaccine wastage in at least more than 10 rural health districts.
All this point towards one fact – low vaccination in Tamil Nadu is not driven by vaccine shortages but because of vaccine hesitancy, thanks to irresponsible politicians and the media in the state.
From questioning the efficacy of made-in-India vaccines to peddling unwarranted fears over an actor’s death, here is a list of political leaders, journalists and social media influencers responsible for the rampant vaccine hesitancy in Tamil Nadu.
MK Stalin
DMK chief and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin during his election campaign continuously kept fear mongering about vaccines. In one of the ‘gram sabha meet’ organized as part of his election campaign in Maduravoyal, Chennai he said “They are news coming about vaccines. We don’t know if it is 100% success. It will be known only later. The Prime Minister has not taken it (vaccine). The Chief Minister (Edappadi K. Palaniswami) has not taken it. Some doctors are taking it. A few others are taking it. Because, it is just like they are testing (on doctors and other people).”
Dayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Maran in Parliament said that the companies which produce vaccines (Covaxin and Covishield) did not follow proper procedure and did not do proper tests. He also raised concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine.
In another instance, he had said that there is a discomfort and people do not trust the vaccine because of the efficacy adding that the Prime Minister should take the vaccine shot in public view.
Thol. Thirumavalavan
VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan resorted to stoking fear about vaccination for COVID. In his social media post, Thirumavalavan said that the demise of the actor ‘has raised many questions’ and added that there is a fear among people as it was after taking the vaccine that the actor fell unconscious. “The government should clarify this. My condolences to the actor”, the Chidambaram MP said in his tweet.
He also urged the Tamil Nadu government to avoid the use of Covaxin, saying that the vaccine had not completed phase 3 trials. He even went on to say that the Indian companies manufacturing vaccines were using people as ‘guinea pigs’.
In an interview to a Tamil YouTube channel, VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan says that he is not against vaccines and that he himself has taken 2 doses of Covishield but goes on to make unsubstantiated claims about vaccines. He says that people are having fear about the vaccines while it was public personalities like him who had correlated actor Vivekh’s death with him taking vaccines. He says that it was the responsibility of the government to address such fears. He also goes on to say that AIIMS doctor themselves have noted that there is a chance of people getting heart attack after taking vaccine.
Seeman
Speaking to reporters during a press meet in January 2021, Seeman went on an anti-vaccine propaganda saying that many of his ‘doctor’ friends across the world have told him to not to take the vaccine. “Corona is not like cholera or small pox. It is working in different ways (mutation). In that case, this vaccine is for which one? What are the after effects of taking the vaccine? They are doing this for politics. That is why I am saying, don’t vaccinate your children. I know a lot of well-known doctors in America, Britain etc. They are telling me not to get vaccinated or let others vaccinate. They tell that no matter what, don’t vaccinate.”
Sumanth Raman
Dr. Sumanth Raman posted a tweet in which he tried to stoke fears linking actor Vivekh suffering a heart attack with him getting vaccinated for COVID on April 15.
In the tweet Sumanth Raman said “If I remember correctly @Actor_Vivek had his #covid vaccine yesterday. Too early to say if there was any link with his illness today. Wishing him a speedy recovery. #vivek”.
After his tweet received backlash, Sumanth put another tweet saying that ‘science is important’
Communist Dr. Ravindranath
During a press meet in January 2021, Dr. Ravindranath, a card-carrying communist who also participates in debates of Tamil News channels, said that the reason the Government of India was hastening the process of roll out of vaccines was to grab the international market for vaccines and help the two companies (SII and Bharat Biotech) earn profits.
Tamil Media and YouTube Channels
1) The above video of Ravindranath which posted in the Tamil YouTube Channel ‘Red Pix’ was titled as ‘COVID vaccine – corporate race between COVISHIELD & COVEXIN’ and has got more than 12000 views. Red Pix channel has more than 1.72 million subscribers. There are so many such videos of Red Pix with click bait titles that peddles fears about vaccines.
2) News 7 Tamil, a mainstream news channel put out a video of a doctor clarifying doubts about the vaccine. Though the doctor in this video says that taking the vaccine will not cause heart attack, the video has been titled “Vaccines cause heart attack? Famous cardiologist explains”. When read in Tamil, the question mark is sure to evoke scepticism about the vaccines.
3) LMES (Let’s Make Engineering Simple) came out with a click bait title for their video “Will Corona vaccine kill us?”
4) Puthiya Thalaimurai, another popular mainstream news channel had covered actor Vivekh’s press meet on April 15 who had taken the vaccine at the Omandurar Hospital. This video was titled “Even if you put vaccine, corona will come.. but”. This video has got 6.8 lakh views. Apart from this, the channel has fear mongered about vaccines various times. On January 17, it posted a video with the titled “52 people in Delhi who took vaccine get side effects”. This video got 5.72 lakh views. On January 18, they posted another video with the title “447 people who took corona vaccine get side effects” which has garnered 2.16 lakh views.
5) Behindwoods YouTube channel had come up with the idea of using a celebrity for spreading awareness about vaccines. In this video, actor Karthi discusses with a popular doctor about vaccines. However, the video was given a misleading title “Which vaccine is good?” when the message has to be any vaccine is good.
6) When actor Vivekh was admitted to hospital due to cardiac arrest, this is what Red Pix posted – “Tamil comedy actor Vivek who took the Covid vaccine admitted to hospital”. The video got more than 1.13 lakh views.
7) Sun News, the DMK family owned channel was even worse. This is what they peddled in the months of January and February:
8) BBC News Tamil put out a video trying to bust the myths surrounding the vaccine. This was the title “Pork mixed in vaccine? Will corona vaccine cause impotence? What is the truth?”.
9) Thanthi TV had put a news titled “Man dies after taking corona vaccine” on April 25.
10) As early as February, The News Minute gave space to an article about a man named Riaz filing a writing petition in the Madras High Court alleging that his health deteriorated and that he had acute neuro encephalopathy days after taking the vaccine.
Today, as Tamil Nadu grapples with the second wave of the virus with people gasping for breath and bodies queuing in crematoriums, I wonder how these people are able to sleep peacefully every night.
The article is based on the tweets of @Tamil_Hindu1
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