MIXING...

The most common local aftereffect reported after the first and second doses was pain at the injection site.

“The findings suggest that immunisation with a combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine (Covishield) followed by an inactivated whole virus vaccine (Covaxin) was not only safe but also elicited better immunogenicity,” the paper said.

The national immunisation programme against Covid-19 began on January 16 with two vaccines: Astrazeneca’s Chadox1-ncov-19 (termed Covishield in India) and inactivated whole virion BBV152 (Covaxin). The regimen for both vaccines initially had a priming dose followed by a homologous booster dose at an interval of four weeks. The gap between the two Covishield doses was later increased to 6-8 weeks, and then to 8-12 weeks. There was no change in the Covaxin schedule.

India prioritised frontline workers, including health care professionals, people above the age of 60 years and adults with comorbidities for vaccination before opening it up for all adults.

“The nationwide vaccination program at this time entered into 4 months of its existence and the event of mixed dosing raised considerable anxiety in public domain with a potential to contributing to vaccine hesitancy. We conducted the current investigation against this backdrop,” said the paper published in the open access medical journal, Medrxiv.

In July, the subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted approval to Christian Medical College, Vellore, to conduct clinical trials of mixing of both Covishield and Covaxin vaccines.

“For this particular study, these people were closely monitored, and their parameters checked at regular intervals to find out the effect of mixing of both the Covid-19 vaccines. There are other studies going on globally and nationally as well to determine the effect of mixing two different types of vaccines as part of the inoculation regimen and we have had promising results so far. However, this is the first result to study the effects of mixing adeno vector and inactivated whole virion based Covid-19 vaccines,” said one of the authors of the ICMR study, asking not to be named.

“These findings have an important implication for the Covid-19 vaccination program wherein heterologous immunisation will pave the way for induction of improved and better protection against the variant strains of Sars-cov-2. Such mixed regimens will also help to overcome the challenges of shortfall of particular vaccines and remove hesitancy around vaccines in people’s mind that could have genesis in programmatic “errors” especially in settings where multiple Covid-19 vaccines are being used,” said the paper. proceedings, with at least 50% in attendance.

A senior Congress strategist aware of the matter indicated on Sunday that the party will not budge from the demand for a debate on Pegasus.

Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, also hinted that the party is unlikely to shift its stand on Pegasus in the last five days of the session. “Remember what happened in 2010,” he said, pointing out how the 2010 winter session was a washout as the BJP, then in Opposition, vigorously demanded a joint parliamentary probe into allegations of corruption in the 2G spectrum allocation.

The Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the party, too, will continue to raise issues and demonstrate. “We will stage dharna at the Gandhi statue (in Parliament) on the violence against our party workers and leaders in Tripura. Inside Parliament, the Pegasus remains our key theme,” he said, referring to the alleged attack on TMC workers in Tripura by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. The BJP has denied any involvement in Saturday’s incident in the north-eastern state.

Other parties, however, said that the constitutional amendment is an important issue. “This is an important bill and I personally want it to be cleared,” said Elamaram Kareem, Rajya Sabha MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

In the three weeks of the monsoon session, opposition parties have largely presented a united front against the Bjp-led government in Parliament. On Friday, leaders of 13 opposition parties attended the farmers’ protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the new farm laws, and spoke about the Pegasus controversy, which erupted last month after reports said that the Israeli spyware may have been used to hack the phones of activists, journalists and politicians in India. Party leaders also huddled together to arrive at a common strategy to counter the government over the two issues, and last week, MPS repeatedly brought up the Pegasus issue even as a debate on a bill introduced in House went on.

On Monday, too, around 14 Opposition leaders from over a dozen parties will meet at 10am at the chamber of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, to chalk out a common strategy. A senior noncongress Opposition leader said they will likely continue to speak about Pegasus and farm laws at every opportunity.

“We are going to give notices for amendments, discussion on bills. And every speaker, when his or her chance comes, might say a few sentences about national security, Pegasus... the issues that we want to highlight,” the leader said on condition of anonymity.

Although much of the session has been rocked by demonstrations and a flurry of adjournments, the government has been able to pass key laws amid the din in both Houses of Parliament. It has managed to pass key bills such as The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021, The Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 and The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in both Houses.

For this week, the government has added more bills in its legislative agenda. It wants to clear bills to create the National Commission for Homeopathy and National Commission for Indian System of Medicines. In the Lok Sabha, it has also listed The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (which will provide relief to depositers of stressed banks) and The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (which aims to improve ease of business in India).

“When the voice of the entire Opposition is being censored daily in Parliament, we will innovate to communicate. We all agreed on a unique technique last week, we will continue to hold them accountable next week,” said Derek O’brien, TMC MP in Rajya Sabha said on Sunday.

“Mr (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, come listen to us,” the Trinamool leader wrote in a tweet on Sunday, posting a three-minute video of Opposition leaders protesting in both the Houses.