The Hindu Editorial (More, and for more) – Dec 27, 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not unlike a Santa Claus who enters homes without warning and leaves gifts, suddenly announced on Christmas night that ‘precaution’ or third doses of vaccine would be available from January 10… For further reading, visit “The Hindu”. Below is today’s word list-1 for The Hindu Editorial (More, and for more) – Dec 27, 2021.

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The Hindu Editorial (More, and for more) – Dec 27, 2021:

vaccine (noun) – a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease.
booster shot/dose (noun) – In medical terms, a booster dose is an extra administration of a vaccine after an earlier dose.
the aged (noun) – the elderly people.
not unlike (phrase) – “not unlike” means that there exist similarities (whereas “like” means they are similar).
dose (noun) – an amount/quantity of something (a medicine/drug) prescribed to be taken at a specific time.
frontline staff/worker/responder/personnel (noun) – a person who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance at the scene of an emergency. First/front line workers/responders typically include paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, firefighters, sanitary workers & etc.
comorbidity (noun) – In medicine, co-morbidity is the presence of one or more additional conditions (diseases) co-occurring/co-existing with a primary condition (disease).
Omicron variant (noun) – On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the (new coronavirus) variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). The first known confirmed Omicron infection was from a specimen collected on November 9. In recent weeks, infections in South Africa have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection.
clamour (noun) – demand, call, urging; protests, complaints, outcry.
shot (noun) – injection, inoculation (of a vaccine/drug).
simultaneous (adjective) – concurrent, coincident; coexistent, parallel.
development (noun) – occurrence, happening, circumstance, incident, phenomenon, situation.
Covaxin (noun) – India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate (COVAXIN) developed by a Hyderabad-based company (Bharat Biotech) in collaboration with the ICMR (The Indian Council of Medical Research).
Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) (noun) – Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is a department of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) of the Government of India responsible for approval of licences of specified categories of drugs such as vaccines, and etc. in India. Drugs Controller General of India, comes under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. DCGI also sets standards for the manufacturing, sales, import, and distribution of drugs in India.
ZycoV-D Vaccine (noun) – a three-dose “plasmid DNA” candidate vaccine being developed by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila. It is a vaccine that uses a genetically engineered, non-replicating version of a type of DNA molecule known as a ‘plasmid’. If approved by the regulator, ZyCov-D will be the world’s first DNA vaccine against infection with SARS-CoV-2.
hit (verb) – reach, get to, arrive at.
Oxford vaccine/Covishield (noun) – (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) or (AZD1222) is named Covishield in India. Serum Institute of India (SII), a biotechnology company has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University for this vaccine candidate ‘Covidshield’.
scale up (phrasal verb) – step up, escalate; increase, expand.
account for (phrasal verb) – constitute, make up, comprise, form, represent.
administer (verb) – dispense, provide, give, apply (a drug/vaccine).
so far (phrase) – until now, up to the present, up to this point.
given (preposition) – considering, taking into account, bearing in mind.
impromptu (adjective) – unpremeditated, unprepared, unplanned, unarranged, unconsidered, spontaneous, offhand, ad hoc.
puzzling (adjective) – perplexing, confusing, bewildering, mystifying.
National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) (noun) – The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) was established by an order of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in 2001. As India’s apex advisory body on immunization, the NTAGI provides guidance and advice to the MoHFW on provision of vaccination and immunization services for the effective control of vaccine preventable diseases in the country. The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) fulfils a need for informing decision-making concerning the introduction of new vaccines and strengthening the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
reportedly (adverb) – supposedly, seemingly, apparently, professedly, ostensibly, purportedly.
weigh (verb) – consider, think about, contemplate, deliberate about, reflect on.
pros and cons (phrase) – pluses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages, good and bad points/effects of something.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) (noun) – the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. As early as in 1911, the Government of India set up the Indian Research Fund Association (IRFA) with the specific objective of sponsoring and coordinating medical research in the country. It was redesignated in 1949 as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
medico- (pre-fix) – relating to the field of medicine.
bureaucratic (adjective) – relating to a bureaucracy; administrative, official, procedural, red-tape, governmental, ministerial.
hierarchy (noun) – class system; arrangement, classification.
antibody (noun) – it is also called ‘immunoglobulin’; a protective protein produced mainly by plasma (blood) cells in the immune system in response to the presence of antigens (disease causing organisms (bacteria & viruses) and other harmful/toxic foreign substances like insect venom).
wax and wane (phrase) – get bigger and get smaller alternatively; grow stronger and grow weaker alternatively; increase and decrease alternatively.
immunisation (noun) – the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.
await (verb) – wait for, expect, anticipate.
artificially (adverb) – synthetically.
public health (noun) – the branch of medicine handling public health; public health is also the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities through education, policy making and research for disease and injury prevention.
consequence (noun) – outcome, ramification, repercussion.
expose (verb) – come into contact with (the disease causing virus).
nosedive (verb) – drop, sink, plunge, go down, decline.
likely (adjective) – probable, possible.
elite (noun) – high society people; the group of most powerful people in a society.
adolescent (adjective) – teenage, young.
mop up (phrasal verb) – account for, dispose of, dispatch, finish off, deal with (by absorbing final details of something).
vulnerable (adjective) – endangered, unsafe, unprotected, unguarded, ill-protected; easily affected by, prone to, at risk of.
administration (noun) – management, operation, regulation, supervision, oversight, leadership.
transparent (adjective) – open/candid, forthright, straightforward, honest.
at hand (phrase) – readily available, accessible.
thrall (noun) – power, control, domination.
calculation (noun) – forecast, projection, prediction, expectation; assessment, judgement.