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'Busy with peacocks', says Rahul Gandhi in dig at PM Modi over rise in COVID-19 cases

Gandhi has been critical of the government over the handling of the COVID crisis and accused it of failing to tackle the situation.

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Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the rise in COVID-19 cases, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the government had asked people to become aatmanirbhar which means they should save their lives themselves as the prime minister was busy with peacocks.

Gandhi has been critical of the government over the handling of the COVID crisis and accused it of failing to tackle the situation.

The government has dismissed all such claims in the past.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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In a tweet, Gandhi said coronavirus infections will cross 50 lakh this week and active cases will surpass 10 lakh.

"Unplanned lockdown is the product of one person’s ego and because of it coronavirus has spread throughout the country,” he said in the tweet in Hindi.

"Modi government said become 'Aatmanirbhar' (self-sufficient) which means save your life yourself because the PM is busy with peacocks,” the former Congress chief added in a clear reference to a recent video showing the prime minister feeding peacocks.

India’s COVID-19 case tally crossed 48 lakh on Monday with 92,071 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 79,722 with 1,136 people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours.

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