WATCH: Indian Villagers Attack & Chase Away Experimental COVID-19 Team

According to the police, a team of health workers was in the village to create awareness about the COVID-19 vaccination.

Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Bhuria told reporters here that some villagers even verbally abused the members of the team and hit the husband of the medical secretary.

“Some villagers verbally abused them and hit the husband of Assistant Secretary on the head. An FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident against four persons while two persons have been arrested,” Bhuria told reporters.

Bhuria said the medical team had visited the village earlier too to persuade the villagers who were not ready for vaccination.

“A case has been registered under relevant provisions. Efforts are on to identify other persons involved in the incident,” the police added.

Newsweek painted Indian villagers as fearful conspiracy nuts:

Several individuals ran from medics and jumped into the Saryu River as misinformation spread across the village that the COVID-19 vaccine was poisonous, or could lead to death, impotence or viral infection, the India Times reported.

One local farmer, Shishupal, told news outlets that he heard of people dying after receiving the coronavirus vaccine and said he did not trust the government.

“I have got this information from several of my friends who work in big cities. I am convinced as the local officials have not answered my queries. My own uncle, who worked in Delhi, died a month after having both vaccine shots. What more proof do I need,” he said, according to the India Times.

“Is there a guarantee that we will not get infected after the vaccine? There are many in the adjoining village who rushed to take the vaccine and then got infected,” he added.

In total, only 14 people across the village with a population of roughly 1,500 agreed to be inoculated on Saturday.

Vaccine hesitancy in India’s rural villages has been a widespread issue for several months. A nationwide survey taken in December found that only 44 percent of villagers said they were willing to get the jab, National Geographic reported.

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Rumors and misinformation about the vaccine’s safety have become one of the biggest hurdles for health officials.

Since February, the country has been struggling with a devastating second wave of COVID-19 infections that has left hospitals overwhelmed and without adequate oxygen supplies. As COVID-19 deaths pile up, crematoriums have run out of wood to build funeral pyres and some cities have been forced to turn parks, parking lots and other public spaces into makeshift cremation sites.

According to a recent research report, nearly half of coronavirus infections in India – 48.5 percent – are now being reported from the rural areas.

Health officials have warned that those in rural villages are at increased risk of infection, as many areas lack adequate health services or facilities to properly treat individuals.

“They don’t have the facilities to cope. They don’t have hospitals, doctors, nurses. They definitely don’t have oxygen supplies. In some places there are only traditional healers and sometimes there are health workers but they have no facilities,” Dr. P Carel Joseph, director of health for the humanitarian organization World Vision India, said earlier this month.

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed farmers during a virtual conference in an attempt to warn villagers that the virus is quickly spreading to rural areas.