Srinagar: Urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the earliest, Member of Parliament (MP) from Srinagar and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said this is the only way to fight this deadly virus and save lives.
Meanwhile, netizens, including Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Mayor, Junaid Azim Mattu, have reacted sharply against some heath workers uploading videos of people, who are afraid of getting vaccinated, on social media, including Facebook and twitter.
“The entire world is battling COVID pandemic. I urge the people of my country to get vaccinated at the earliest as it is the only way to fight this deadly disease,” Dr Abdullah said in a video message.
The NC president said that he is hopeful that people will get themselves registered and get vaccinated so that they can save lives.
Videos of people, who are afraid of getting vaccinated, are doing rounds on social media. Many of these videos have been uploaded by healthcare workers or people associated with vaccination drive in the valley. However, the move has not gone down well with the netizens, who claim that it is a breach of privacy and could further increase vaccine hesitancy.
“While I appreciate and fully understand the challenges faced by the frontline healthcare workers in combatting this mindset —- I don’t think it’s appropriate to shoot these videos and upload them on social media. It will only compound the challenge,” Mr Mattu said in response to one such video on his twitter handle.
“Ideally, such videos shouldn’t be posted. We should take off the oxygen of amplification from such misleading messages. This video could trigger a chain reaction,” a twitter user said.
“This stupidity of filming ppl should be stop . Worldwide o we ppl are skeptical about the vaccine but it is a trend here that videos are made and put on social media. Who has given ppl authority to circulate these videos . Shameful,” another tweet read.
J&K has so far achieved 73 per cent vaccination in the above 45 age group, almost double the national average. Meanwhile, south Kashmir district of Shopian has recorded 100 per cent vaccination while the lowest 39.13 per cent vaccination took place in Kupwara in above 45 age group followed by Srinagar with 48 per cent.