Fear, including misplaced ones, can drive people to do stupid things, sometimes.

One such example occured at the Sisoda village in Uttar Pradesh recently, when a group of 200 villagers jumped into a river to evade vaccination.

According to a report in The Tribune, the incident happened last Sunday, when a team of health officials visited the village to give COVID-19 vaccination to the villagers.

One hesitant villager, who jumped into the Saryu river, was quoted expressing fear that people have even died after getting vaccinated.

"I know of those who have had to be hospitalised after the jab.

"I have got this information from several of my friends who work in big cities. I am convinced as the local officials have not answered my queries," the villager, identified as Sishupal, was quoted telling the portal.

The farmer further claimed that his uncle, who worked in Delhi, died a month after getting both his vaccine shots.

Unverified claims that the vaccine causes impotence are also causing the male villagers to shun jabs. Some villagers later told officials that they ran off as they were told that the vaccine was a poisonous injection.

After much convincing from the health officials, only about 18 people from the 200 plus villagers got their jabs.

It certainly looks that fake news and misinformation that causes vaccine hesitancy is becoming a menace bigger than COVID-19 itself.

India so far has more than 27.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and almost 319,000 deaths from the disease.

It places second to the United States in the list of countries worst hit by the pandemic.

The global coronavirus infection and death tally currently stands at more than 169 million, and over 3.52 million, respectively.


Source: The Tribune
Photo source: The Tribune