In the new year, India approved COVID-19 vaccine, not one but two covid-19 vaccines and it has already run into massive controversy. On Friday, the CDSCO’s Subject Expert Committee met and gave a green signal to Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Coronavirus Vaccine Manufactured by Serum Institute of India. However, on Sunday, the Drug Controller General of India announced a formal approval for two coronavirus vaccines: First Serum Institute Vaccine Covishield and Second is the Vaccine Developed by Bharat Biotech covaxin.
On Sunday the DCGI announced a press conference. It was called press conference despite the fact that no questions from the press were taken. Well, Announcing approval to Serum Institute’s ‘Covishield’ coronavirus vaccine, VG Somani said the vaccine trial was conducted on 23,745 participants and the overall efficacy of the vaccine was found to be more than 70 per cent. “The Indian data was also found to be comparable with overseas clinical studies,” the DCGI said. Moving on to “Bharat Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine ‘Covaxin’ he claimed that it is safe and gives a robust immune response.”
As soon as the announcement came out, the development was hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers. PM Modi took to Twitter to thank the Scientists and Doctors. He said DCGI granting approval to vaccines of SerumInstIndia and BharatBiotech accelerates the road to a healthier and COVID-free nation.
However, he did not forget to give it the touch of his pitch for Self Reliant India. He tweeted, “It would make every Indian proud that the two vaccines that have been given emergency use approval are made in India! This shows the eagerness of our scientific community to fulfil the dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, at the root of which is care and compassion.”
While the govt is happy that it gave a nod to not one but two vaccines, one among them completely indigenous, it soon kicked up a major controversy. Experts and critics pointed out that while Covaxin has been given formal approval, the phase 3 trial data of the vaccine’s efficacy and safety is yet to be published. This has raised serious concerns leading to calls for more data on Covaxin trial. Covaxin is being developed by Bharat Biotech along with ICMR.
In this video today, let us talk about the vaccine controversy and the questions arising out of it.
#Covaxin #BharatBiotech #ICMR #OxfordAstraZeneca #SerumInstituteIndia #DCGI
Watch the previous episodes on India’s Covid-19 vaccine efforts here: “If you don’t Follow Protocols You Could Potentially Put People At Risk”: Anant Bhan
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