‘All Pharmacists must be trained to administer jabs’

Mysore/Mysuru: Regular market approval to Covishield and Covaxin vaccines may not make much of a difference to Pharmacists as they are not trained in vaccination, said N. Raghavan, proprietor of Raghulal & Co., Mysuru.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning regarding the Government’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) recommending granting regular market approval to Covishield and Covaxin, he said that the approval will enable over-the-counter sales in the due course but will not be much of a use to Pharma business.

“But the point here is that Pharmacists are not trained in administering vaccines. In Western countries, all Pharmacists are trained in inoculation but in India we cannot do so as there is no upgradation of syllabus in B-Pharma to include inoculation. If we are trained and given a chance to inoculate people, we can do it as a service and at the same time, expand our business. Also, this will considerably reduce pressure on doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff,” he said.

This pandemic will not end as in the future there will be many variants and vaccination too is needed. “I really hope the Government upgrades the B-Pharma course to include inoculation so that it can at least decrease the burden of the medical fraternity. We need to be future-proof,” he added.

Even over-the-counter availability of Covishield and Covaxin will not boost sales as already, vaccination of both the doses has been completed and now a third dose is being administered. “India has achieved wonders in vaccination and is far better than the most powerful and first world countries that are lagging behind. Even if newer strains come, our own vaccines are capable of preventing them,” he added.