Covid-19 Vaccine

Why in news?

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) wants the Covid-19 vaccine to be ready for public use way sooner.

What is the vaccine?

‘Covaxin’ is the indigenous Covid-19 vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
It was developed from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated at the National Institute of Virology.

How this decision is viewed?

The agency’s head wrote a letter to the doctors preparing to test the indigenous vaccine for human trials.
This appeared to be pressurizing the doctors into getting a vaccine ready by August 15, 2020.
After a public uproar, the agency clarified that, its intent was to infuse a sense of urgency given the pandemic.
It also clarified that there were no plans to deviate from the rulebook on vaccine development.

What are the steps in vaccine approval?

The basic philosophy of all vaccines involves introducing the weakened form of the virus into healthy volunteers.
Therefore, the first checkpoint is that the vaccine candidate should not sicken a healthy person.
Next hurdle is that a vaccine must stimulate the immune system just enough to get it to produce protective antibodies.
Finally, only if all were to go well, it must be tested on many people in real world conditions.
Over time, they must be shown over to be better protected than those who were unvaccinated.
Each one of these steps cannot be rushed.
Each step is necessary to ensure that the vaccine can be released for public use.

What is the conclusion?

Bharat Biotech has experience and credibility in vaccine manufacture.
However, Covaxin is one of hundreds of potential vaccines being tested.
Experts’ consensus is that no vaccine could be readied for public use until next year.
It is perplexing why the ICMR would want to cut corners with a basic premise of research that: Science does not progress in a hurry.
The best strategy is to maintain absolute transparency, and proceed surely, even if slowly.

Source: The Hindu