Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is defined as illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV), which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. It initially was reported to the WHO on December 31, 2019. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. It almost has been a year, scientists have come up vaccines and the trials went successful.
Although amid all these a circular with guidelines on COVID-19 protocols attributed to the ICMR is doing the rounds. The guideline says that travel abroad should be postponed for 2 years. Avoid food from outside for 1 year and do not marriages or attend ceremonies. It further says do not travel unnecessarily , follow social distancing norms and stay away from a person who has cough. It also says wear a mask, be very careful in the current one week and prefer vegetarian food. While most of these protocols are right and is advisable to be followed, this is however not issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR advises following COVID-19 protocols at all times, but these guidelines are falsely circulated around the social media.
Furthermore, several criminal organizations are active and are circulating and selling the counterfeit or fake vaccine. Such criminal acts are carried out by both modes, physically and online. Many websites are active in committing such fraud a petition claimed. If such criminal organisations succeed in marketing and selling fake Covid vaccine then it may lead to chaos and big imbalance as it will negatively affect the vaccination programme to be run by the government and instead of cure will bring more disastrous effects. The fake news regarding covid is spreading faster than covid itself, hence, we need to be cautious about the information we believe on.
