Veerappan’s land Gopinatham shuns Covid jabs, only 11 among 5k villagers go for it

MYSURU: Vaccine hesitancy, coupled with misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines across villages on the Karnataka border, has led to a situation where entire villages are shunning the jabs. This can be gauged from the fact that in former forest brigand Veerappan’s native Gopinatham village panchayat, only 11 out of the 5,300 people spread across seven villages have taken the vaccines, posing a major challenge for the Health Department and other officials in the region.

Those inoculated are the panchayat staff and the panchayat vice-president. Surprisingly, even the president of the panchayat, Shivagami, and 10 other members have said ‘no’ to the vaccination.The Gopinatham panchayat, comprising of Punajuru, Koteyuru, Athuru, Alambady, Appugampatti and Marikotai (Hogenakal) villages, have over 58 active  cases while six people have already recovered from the disease. What seems to be bothering the villagers most is the death of a person, allegedly after taking the vaccine, at Jaageri village nearby. In addition, the death of Tamil actor and comedian Vivek, reportedly after taking the jab, spread like wildfire among the villagers where Tamil movies have considerable following.

Though a team of health staff from M M Hills PHC  came to the village to inoculate the villagers on April 30, none of the villagers turned up. After a long wait, the team packed up.Shockingly, the villagers are asking the Panchayat Development Officer and others to give them in writing that nothing will happen to them after taking the vaccine. The PDO, Kiran, is now reaching out to the younger population, forest staff, watchers, teachers and local officials, sensitizing them about the vaccine by reaching door-to-door. He said that they have planned a camp to see that the youths between 18 to and are covered in the next round.

“The misinformation and rumours spread by those at the Covid Care Centre in Ramapura had added to the worry as many villagers are also refusing to undergo RT-PCR tests. We have received 11 samples on Wednesday. What can we do if people don’t turn up?” asked a health staffer.