69
who had registered to be vaccinated. She found the
names of three elderly and disabled people with
mobility issues who she knew couldn’t make it to
the camp. She took a bag with vaccine doses and
supplies and walked with her team toward their
homes, a short trek from the vaccination site. An
official door-to-door vaccination policy would only
be announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
in another two months, but Sharma’s prior work
had taught her that sometimes you need to meet
people where they are.
Health workers like Sharma know well the chal-
lenges, such as travel difficulties or household
commitments, in the smaller communities they
serve—they have a kind of knowledge and intimacy
that are impossible in bigger cities. At the Aghariya
camp, she did not waste the opportunity to advise
mothers who were there for routine immunizations
for their kids that they should also get the COVID-19
vaccine for themselves. “You have to be mindful of
the community’s sentiments,” she says. “We don’t
push too hard. It takes time. Sometimes I request,
sometimes I am stern. But they know I mean well.”
Throughout the last months of 2021, Sharma
and others like her worked unremittingly to get
vaccines to people in remote villages. Hema Devi,
who got her first shot in August, was able to get
her second in December—although she still had to
make the long trek from Thiroli to Dhanachuli. She
was relieved to get it when she did, as an Omicron-
fueled surge of COVID-19 cases began sweeping
the country shortly after.
Several weeks later, India’s COVID-19 cases are
on the decline, and state governments are reopen-
ing schools after long hiatuses. In Dhari, where hos-
pitalizations remain relatively low, health workers
are still working to fully vaccinate 15- to 17-year-
olds, as well as administer booster shots to adults.
Sharma says it’s much easier this time than with
first doses because there’s a much greater un-
derstanding of the need for them. Villagers have
“watched the news about the booster dose on tele-
vision and have been coming up to me asking about
it,” she says. “They understand the importance of
the vaccines in keeping the whole community safe.”
That understanding helps people like Devi
walk the extra mile to get vaccinated. “If I could,
I would urge everyone to take the vaccine. Don’t
think of yourself; think of your friends and fam-
ily and your community,” she says. “If you are safe,
they are safe; the world is safe.” —With reporting
by EloisE Barry/london △
A mobile team
led by Renu
Sharma, left,
visits the home
of a local who
cannot make it
to a vaccination
center on Sept. 4