In a country, which inhabits 1,392,123,725 people, 47,882,950 i.e. 3.5% of them got fully vaccinated and 210,442,950 i.e. 15.4% got its first jab successfully. The term of vaccination started from January 16, 2021 and the numbers have been shooting up steadily ever since. Though, the country had to face a-lots of humming and hawing regarding the Covid-19 vaccination process.
Recently, a Twitter user, username @kamalseela1, twitted an image, which says, “Anyone who has been vaccinated against coronavirus is prohibited from taking any type of anesthetic, even local anesthetics or dentist’s anesthetics, because this poses a great danger to the life of the vaccinated person and is highly dangerous.”
The same post went viral on other social media platforms including Facebook as well. The post puts emphasis on the part that anaesthetics can be life threatening for vaccinated people. It goes on to suggest that people who took the jab must wait for a month to go under surgery involving anaesthesia.
Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) broke the myth as they spoke to health experts who said there is no scientific evidence till date to confirm the claim. However, doctors prefer to delay any such surgery exactly post vaccination in order the recipient gets the benefits of the doses. Dr Samiran Panda, head of the epidemiology and communicable diseases division at ICMR, and he denied the claim saying, “There is no scientific evidence to validate the unfounded misinformation involving Covid Vaccine and anesthetics.”
He also mentioned, “Any immuno-suppressive drug or concomitant therapy that will hinder the body’s immune response should be avoided just after vaccination to get the full benefit of the vaccine, but any anesthetic is short-active so it should not adversely impact the Covid-19 vaccination”.
Meanwhile, Indian government’s PIB fact check has also made an awareness post against the false claim, with a caption, “A post claiming that anesthetics can be life-threatening for #COVID19 vaccinated people is doing the rounds on social media. This claim is #FAKE”.
Also, the Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists and College of Anaesthesiologists, an academy of Medicine of Malaysia, spoke in a Press Conference against the viral post. It said, “Allowing such misstatements to propagate may impact many vulnerable individuals awaiting anesthesia for surgical procedures and their inclination for vaccination”.
This is not the first time such myths surfaced. Prior to this myths or misleading information like ‘getting a covid jab might get the person infected with covid’ ; ‘getting vaccination could lead to death within 2 years’ ; ‘expecting or lactating mothers can’t receive the jab’ ; ‘women can’t take the jab on or before their mensturation’ ; ‘getting the covid vaccination could alter one’s DNA’ ; ‘people get magnetic after getting vaccinated’ ; ‘covid vaccines are not safe because they were developed in a short span of time’ ; ‘people with underlying conditions shouldn’t get vaccinated’ ; ‘the vaccines are not effective against the new variants’ and a few more.
Dr Marzida Mansor (president of Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists) and Dr Jahizah Hassan (president of College of Anaesthesiologists, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia) issued a joint statement on Covid-19 vaccination and anaesthetics on June 13, 2021.
“Patients may present post-vaccination symptoms such as muscle pain or fever which may extend through the perioperative period. Deferment here is to ensure that the side-effects of the vaccine are not confused with other side-effects related to the operative procedure,” the statement said.
Thus, getting a surgery right after the jab won’t possess any life threat because of the anesthesia, but, in order to get the benefits of the vaccine doses, it would be better to delay it for a month or two.
