Before coronavirus vaccinations began, global surveys generally showed less vaccine hesitancy in India than in the United States and other countries. India has successfully eradicated many diseases through mass immunization campaigns. It was officially declared polio-free in 2014.
“This isn’t the first immunization campaign for us. We’ve been doing this since the 1950s with smallpox and polio. We’ve been collecting people from their homes or doing home visits,” Dr. Dumpalwar says. “So we have the manpower and the systems. It’s all already there.”
Urban and rural areas are plastered with billboards touting COVID vaccines. Whenever you make a phone call in India – landlines or mobile – instead of a ringtone, you hear a government message saying, “When it’s your turn, do take the vaccine… and don’t believe in rumors.”
But with vaccinations now underway, more recent surveys show higher than expected public uncertainty. In a survey of 25,000 Indians published Thursday, 58% of respondents said they are hesitant about taking the coronavirus vaccine immediately. But that figure was 16% lower than in an identical survey taken one month earlier, suggesting that public awareness campaigns may be working, and that attitudes are changing quickly. Both surveys were conducted on social media by LocalCircles, an online community forum that conducts polls about governance and consumer interest.
In rural Palghar, locals wash dishes in a communal well, and chat about how they don’t know anyone with COVID-19. The number of coronavirus cases confirmed nationwide has dropped from a peak of nearly 100,000 cases a day in September to under 9,000 one day this past week. Scientists are trying to figure out why.
The pressure is off. The fear is gone. No one has COVID here,” says Akash Chawan, a 19-year-old amateur cricket player who left college in Mumbai to take refuge with relatives in the countryside. “In Mumbai, it’s a different situation. You feel like you’re in a pandemic. But here, people are taking it more lightly. The cases have gone down. We can move freely like we used to live before.”
When it’s his turn, Chawan says he’s unsure if he’ll take the vaccine. He thinks the worst of the pandemic might already be over. Maybe he won’t need the vaccine, he says. A recent serological survey showed 56% of residents in India’s capital have COVID antibodies, suggesting prior exposure to the virus.
“I think most people are waiting for more information,” Chawan says.
He’s not alone. In the latest LocalCircles survey, 51% of respondents said they want to wait at least three months before making a decision about whether to take the vaccine.
Beyond the mangroves that line rural Palghar’s Arabian Sea coast, fishermen’s wives spread shrimp husks in a thin layer on the ground to dry in the sun. A cement pier overlooking a muddy inlet is lined with wooden frames where they’d normally hang fish to dry. But the scaffold is empty.
Women hunker over buckets, shucking oysters, and commiserate about the economy. A nationwide lockdown last spring meant they couldn’t take their boats out on the water. Markets were shut. The Indian economy nosedived into an unprecedented recession.
