“The state health department has threatened to initiate legal action against those sending panic messages advising people to boycott the coming massive measles-rubella vaccine drive in which nearly 1.8 crore children between 9 months and 15 years will be vaccinated in schools and primary health centres from February 6.
[Lila: around 237,000 children]
The department has the powers to persuade parents to vaccinate their children, said director of public health Dr K Kolandaisamy.
In the past one week, there has been a flood of messages on social media urging parents not to send their children for vaccination in schools and some suggest that they should not send their children to school on days scheduled for vaccinations……
“We are well within our powers even to arrest people who are a hindrance to the success of this scheme. We are working with the cybercrime team to track such panic messages. The scheme is being launched to eliminate the virus from the environment,” he said.”