37 doctors in Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital test positive
Even as Covid-19 cases are surging despite ramping up of the vaccination drive each passing day, the Government is bracing up for a new worry as the virus is infecting even those people, including large number of doctors, who have already taken both doses of vaccines.
This might hamper the health services at a time when the country is witnessing a second wave.
Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said infection among doctors even after getting vaccination can impair the functionality of services that are being provided. “If doctors go for quarantine or get sick, who will provide healthcare services,” he cautioned.
For instance, at least 37 doctors in Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital have tested positive for the coronavirus and five of them have been admitted for treatment.
Similarly, about 40 doctors have tested positive in a hospital in the last few days. Around half of them belong to the general surgery department, nine of the urology department and three of the department of medicine. Most of them had taken the vaccine in the first phase of the vaccination that was launched from January 16.
Studies say the “Peltzman Effect”, might be one of the reasons. The term is used to indicate that when safety measures are mandated, people’s perception of risk decreases, making them take riskier decisions.
The Peltzman Effect has been termed after Sam Peltzman, an economist at the University of Chicago. According to the theory, Peltzman postulated that mandating the use of seatbelts in automobiles led to more accidents. This implies that safety perception increases the appetite for risks. In other terms, people become more careful when they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more protected.
Similarly, in the case of Covid-19, vaccines are giving a sense of security, which has led to an increase in risky behaviour. Such behaviour includes low adherence to preventive measures like mask usage, social distancing and hand sanitisation.
While it is a known fact that vaccines neither give immediate protection or full protection (against infection or death), the sense of security, unfortunately, starts much earlier, even before the actual injection.
The increase in the number of people being inoculated gives rise to a “misplaced sense of security in “herd immunity” long before widespread immunity is truly present,” said doctors from New York University’s Langone Health in a comprehensive review of the Peltzman Effect, published in the ACP Journals on March 2.
“Consciously or not, even those who have not received a Covid-19 vaccine may forgo masks and social distancing if they know that others are receiving the vaccine,” the doctors added.