Page 28 - XITE Magazine 2021

Annual Magazine

The Vaccine Story Simran Khanna
The Vaccine Story
The Vaccine Story
BBA Semester I

Last year the whole world faced a major attack in the form of the corona virus that infected the world. In
January 2020, we got to know about the spreading of the deadly COVID-19 otherwise called the corona virus.
It is rumored that one of our neighbouring countries had its hand in the worldwide spreading of the corona
virus. To fight this deadly virus, the world needed appropriate ammunition. That is, a 'Vaccine'. Let us talk
about vaccine or vaccination. A vaccine (or immunization) is a way to build your body's natural immunity to a
disease before you get sick. This keeps you from getting and spreading the disease. For most vaccines, a
weakened form of the disease germ is injected into your body. The vaccine is one of the most important
inventions that everybody in the world needs now. After the spread of covid-19 in the world, almost all the
nation started to make vaccines in their laboratory. However, it was a long wait before such an invention was

finally made. After working tirelessly around the clock for almost a year, scientists from some of the major
pharmaceutical companies of the world came up with a usable vaccine.
Some of our Indian pharmaceutical companies were trying to make vaccines too! There are almost eight
companies that were trying to make vaccines in their laboratories. The Serum Institute of India (SII), one of
the largest pharmaceutical companies in Pune, Maharashtra, finally made a vaccine called Covishield and it
had spent almost 100 million USD on the research and development of the vaccine. They invented the vaccine
in June 2020 and had to get a government permit to start the production. After getting permission from the
government Serum Institute of India started the production in bulk and by the end of the year almost
completed the production of about 1 million vaccines to be given out to the low and middle-income group. The
vaccine costs around 250 rupees for India and for other countries, it's about 1000 rupees. They have already
started making more stocks and expects to supply about 400 million vaccines by mid-year 2021.

However, vaccination comes with its own share of problems. The major problems faced by the people on the
first day of vaccination was an allergic reaction to
the vaccine, in some cases leading to a death. Then
there was also the delay in uploading of the user list.
On 16th January an app called 'Cowin' was launched
to overcome this particular issue. Till January, in
India, the data on vaccination says,
Number of people vaccinated -191181

Number of vaccination sites -3352
Number of people involved in the functioning -16755

Vaccine is the safety measure that we need now and
the World Health Organization has shown that
vaccines are safer than therapeutic medicines. It
improves an individual's immune system and makes
him healthier. The government of India has requested
every individual to take the vaccine when their turn
comes.

Rahul Kumar
B. Com. Sem. I

26 Volume-VIII, 2020