Ministry of Health seeks ‘support from university networks’ for vaccine roll-out mission

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a letter to the Ministry of Education’s department of higher Education has asked for support from universities and higher education institutes to ensure the right information is disseminated to the public. In the letter, Rajesh Bhushan Secretary MoHFW wrote, “Ministry of Education has collaborated with MoHFW as an equal partner hitherto and especially during the outbreak of COVID-19”.

He asked higher education institutes to support the “campaign roll out with support from university network and online talk platforms as well as leverage points of large footfalls.” The government is in process of rolling-out the vaccine for the COVID-19. In the initial phase, the vaccine is made available to frontline workers, healthcare workers, persons aged 50 years and above, and those below 50 with co-morbid conditions.

“In the face of such a swift evolving scenario of vaccine development and rollout, one of the challenges is to ensure that over 1.3 billion people in India receive factually correct and prompt information and updates on vaccine benefits and roll-out progress,” the letter stated.

“It is critical to building public confidence regarding vaccine safety and address fears over any adverse events and at the same time to continue stress on strict public adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour. We will need to actively collaborate towards building such an environment of universal vaccine acceptability and the key will be the effective communication action plan for proactive dissemination at all levels,” it added.

Sharing the letter further with all vice-chancellors, UGC reiterated, “Universities have an important role to play through their network and other platforms to support the campaign for the roll-out of the vaccination programme. I write this to seek your personal intervention for successful implementation of the vaccination programme,” said UGC chairperson.