Etawah: In yet another incident showing the large-scale vaccine hesitancy plaguing India’s rural belt, a video has emerged of an elderly woman hiding and taking cover behind a drum inside her house during a door-to-door vaccination drive in Etawah of Uttar Pradesh. The elderly woman is seen crouching and hiding behind a drum in fear of the vaccine even as her family members and healthcare workers try to persuade her to come out. When she finally came out in the open, the woman is seen repeatedly saying no and is visibly scared at the sight of the healthcare workers conducting the vaccine drive.

The incident took place on Wednesday when the group of health workers along with local MLA Sarita Bhadauria arrived at Chandanpur village in Etawah for the vaccination drive. The MLA visited several households in the village to encourage the villagers to take the jab. The healthcare workers finally managed to convince her to come out by promising to not give the jab.

However, even when the MLA was waiting outside her door, the elderly woman refused to come out and continued to stay put behind the drum she used to store wheat. The video shows a young man looking for the elderly woman who can be heard making ardent appeals and pleads with folded hands for not taking the vaccine. The healthcare workers finally managed to convince her to come out by promising to not give her the vaccine.

Vaccine hesitancy in UP villages

Earlier in May, a group of villagers in Uttar Pradesh`s Barabanki district jumped into a river and crossed over to the other side to escape a vaccination drive. The villagers were apparently told by someone that it was not a vaccine, but a poisonous injection.

Last week, Barabanki villagers chased away a medical team with sticks. The team of the Kothi community health centre was conducting tests at the ration shop in Kotwa village, around 50 km east of Lucknow. Though some people got the tests done, others who came later refused to give samples. The shop owner said he would give them ration only after they got the tests done, but they did not relent, according to police.

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