The Federation of Western India Cine Employees has sought COVID-19 vaccines for artists, workers and technicians of the industry. | Representative image. Source: Reuters

As the second wave of COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in India, Yash Raj Films has announced that it will bear the cost of vaccinating around 30,000 registered members of the film industry.

In a letter to the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), the Yash Chopra Foundation said it has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to allow them to procure 60,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

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Akshaye Widhani, Senior Vice President of YRF, said, "The Yash Chopra Foundation will bear all other costs too associated with vaccinating the workers such as raising awareness, transportation of workers & setting up all the required infrastructure for the immunisation program. We hope our kind request is approved which will enable our members to be safe and also get them back to work at the earliest."

With the film industry going through an unprecedented time, there is an urgent need to restart at the earliest so that thousands of workers can start earning their livelihood again and protect their families, the letter added.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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COVID-19 vaccination: Yash Raj Films to sponsor jabs for 30,000 registered workers in Bollywood

The Federation of Western India Cine Employees has sought COVID-19 vaccines for artists, workers and technicians of the industry.

The Federation of Western India Cine Employees has sought COVID-19 vaccines for artists, workers and technicians of the industry. | Representative image. Source: Reuters

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