HealthifyMe acqui-hires Under45, launches vaccination slot bookings

With this, HealthifyMe has also opened vaccine slot bookings on its app and website, HealthifyMe.com.

PTI

July 06, 2021 / 11:17 IST

State Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni that home vaccination on a trial and experimental basis would be introduced in Pune district first.

Health-tech startup HealthifyMe on Tuesday said it has acqui-hired the team of Under45 that gained popularity for helping people find slots for COVID vaccination.

With this, HealthifyMe has also opened vaccine slot bookings on its app and website, HealthifyMe.com.

"Now, one can also book their slots directly from HealthifyMe, which has registered itself as an Application Service Provider (ASP) with CoWin. To supercharge efforts on its vaccination slot booking initiative, HealthifyMe has also acqui-hired the Under45 team," a statement said.

The company had earlier launched Vaccinateme.in in 10 languages, which helped over 8 million people to search for slots and get notified about the same as they became available.

Developed by Chennai-based techie, Berty Thomas, the Under45 platform sends vaccination slot alerts to users opting for the service via the Telegram messaging app.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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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