IMA hails ‘altruistic' leadership, health care workers for 1 billion vaccination milestone

The IMA was highly critical of pseudoscience peddled by some politicians amidst a ravaging pandemic and took Baba Ramdev head-on as the yoga guru was initially not in favour of vaccination.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday hailed “altruistic leadership” and modern medical manpower for keeping the mortality rate due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) under 1.4% throughout the pandemic when many Western countries reported a staggering 2.5% mortality rate. As India reached the milestone of administering 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses, the association said it worked extra hard to mitigate the vaccination hesitancy and was delighted to see the country cross the landmark.

The IMA stressed that the vaccination milestone also gives the hope to "confidently and assuredly" mitigate the impacts of the third Covid wave. (HT File)

“IMA salute the modern medical manpower, who had taken this nationalistic task on their shoulders as a priority task, reaching out to the unreached and making the vaccination reach 1 billion needy people with the government of India of giving it free of cost to the people,” the IMA said in a statement.

The IMA stressed that the vaccination milestone also gives the hope to "confidently and assuredly" mitigate the impacts of the third Covid wave, saying it is evident that vaccination protects people from severe Covid-19.

While the medical association lauded PM Modi’s “proactive leadership” in “effectively” managing the pandemic, it didn’t fail to highlight the challenges of bed availability, oxygen shortages, drugs, and misinformation campaigns during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. It said that the association leaders voluntarily took the vaccination on the first day to send a positive message when many had raised concerns about the vaccination safety and efficacy.

The IMA was highly critical of pseudoscience peddled by some politicians amidst a ravaging pandemic and took Baba Ramdev head-on as the yoga guru was initially not in favour of vaccination. In many of his interactions with followers as well as media persons, Ramdev had questioned the efficacy of modern medicine in combating the pandemic. The yoga exponent did a somersault only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free Covid vaccines for all.

“Get both doses of the vaccine and the double protection of yoga and Ayurveda. They will combine to give you such a robust shield of protection that not a single person will die from Covid,” he told reporters in Haridwar,” PTI quoted Ramdev as saying in June.