India's cultures coupled with the Hindu religion are ancient and it's my guess that "pressure" only partially describes the emotions surrounding this infestation. When one is backed up between the proverbial rock and a hard place - pressure to do something - even if it is strange to an outsider might bring calm to an otherwise scary time.
Some of the smartest, friendliest people I have worked with are from India, and vaccine hesitancy is
nothing new to cultures that we are more familiar with.
- "Public vaccination began after English physician Edward Jenner learned that milkmaids were protected from smallpox after exposure to cowpox, a related virus in cows. In 1796, Jenner scientifically legitimized the procedure of injecting people with cowpox, which he termed
variolae vaccinae, to prevent smallpox. However, variolation — which staved off serious smallpox infections by triggering mild infection through exposure to material from an infected person — dates back to at least the 1000s in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. In some cases people inhaled the dried scabs of smallpox lesions or rubbed or injected pus from smallpox lesions into a healthy person’s scratched skin."
One to two percent of people died from the procedure while 30% died from smallpox.