Bengaluru: Digit Insurance conducted a live session on Facebook with Dr.M.C Misra, Former Director AIIMS, Delhi talking about COVID-19 vaccination, common questions, fears and debunking myths. The session was viewed by over 1000 people across the country and ran for an hour.

Dr. Misra started the session talking about how vaccines work, how is it different than medication, how the cells in the body build up antigens to fight a virus and the vaccine trains the body to generate a protective immune response by introducing a version of the virus to the body that is less harmful, so it doesn’t cause severe symptoms. He moves on to talking about the six different kind of vaccines available, the pros and cons of the two types available in India, and also answered on how the vaccines were developed so quickly while undergoing the same trials as that of other vaccines.

Dr.Misra then delves into more popular doubts, like if people who have recovered from COVID should take the vaccine, confirming affirmation that although they do have a natural immunity of around 8 months yet they should still take the vaccine. He also advises to take both the doses spaced at 28 days from each other. He also explains why it is risky to only depend on herd immunity to develop in India with the 2^nd largest population in the world.

Dr. Misra concludes the session talking about how efficacy is determined for a vaccine, how above 70% 3efficacy any vaccine is seen as great and how clinical trials are conducted at different phases to check for safety and immunogenicity. He also reveals that there are two more vaccines that India is set to receive by April this year. He finally ended the talk by giving tips on how patients with those who have diabetes, hypertension, lung problems, heart problems, liver diseases, kidney diseases or dialysis, organ transplant or undergoing cancer treatment should take the vaccine, how should people who have recovered from the severe symptoms should take the jab and what should people taking immunosuppressants do before taking the vaccine.

Digit Insurance’s endeavour to simplify the questions and doubts about the vaccination did bring in clarity on whether one should get vaccinated, whether they are safe and how they help in fighting this virus.