COVID-19: The vaccination drive in India and the Peltzman effect.

The ongoing COVID-19 vaccine drives across the world, including India, may have caused people to adopt risky behavior such as decreased or non-adherence to COVID-appropriate social behavior. Such phenomenon in which people are more likely to engage in risky behavior when security measures have been mandated is termed as the "Peltzman Effect" and apart from the emergence of various variants, it may have contributed to the recent upsurge in the number of new COVID-19 cases across the world, including in India. To make the worldwide COVID-19 vaccine drive successful, it is important to acknowledge, understand and minimize the potential harms from Peltzman Effect.

Medical certification of cause of death during COVID-19 pandemic - a challenging scenario.

Death certificate data is used to monitor local, regional and national mortality trend and is helpful in improving public health as well as public safety. Accurate and reliable information about the cause of death in a population is useful for understanding disease burden estimation and trends in the health of populations; moreover, the information provided by such data is vital in terms of public health planning as well. With the continuous upsurge in mortality due to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), mortality analysis could be valuable in addressing the current pandemic and implementing the epidemic control strategies effectively and efficiently.