Vaccine drive picks amid concerns

Bharat Biotech explains who shouldn’t take the vaccine, K’taka docs say let us choose

India’s vaccination drive against Covid-19 picked up pace on Tuesday with more than 6.31 lakh healthcare and frontline workers getting the jab amidst concerns over the efficacy and adverse effects of the indigenous Covaxin.

Though no adverse reactions of the two vaccines – Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) and Covishield (Serum Institute of India) — were reported on Tuesday after the cumulative 580 cases of Adverse Effect Following

Immunisation (AEFI) in the first three days, healthcare workers in several parts of the country continue to show reluctance to take Covaxin. In most places the demand was for Covishield.

However, the Central government on Tuesday said both the vaccines are safe and healthcare workers should drop their hesitancy and take the shots. Union health ministry officials added that both Covishield and Covaxin have been dispatched to states and Union Territories and it is the local authorities that are deciding which vaccines are to be used where.

The major concern has been with regard to Covaxin, developed by

Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR, which has been given approval for restricted use in emergency situations, in clinical trial mode. Till Monday, 580 persons reported AEFI. Two deaths that followed vaccinations have been delinked with immunisation after postmortem.

Bharat Biotech on Tuesday again issued a fact-sheet saying people with a history of allergies, having fever, bleeding disorder or those who are on a blood thinner, pregnant or lactating, and with any other serious health-related issues must not be take Covaxin. The company listed pain, swelling or itching at injection point, body ache, headache, fever, malaise, weakness, rashes, nausea and vomiting as possible side effects of the vaccine.

Senior officials of the government said both vaccines are safe and AEFI is just 0.18% out of which only 0.002% needed hospitalisation following immunisation which officials termed as “fairly low and the lowest so far in the world in the first three days.”

“In a document for this vaccine, it is mentioned that if there is a causal relation between immunisation and adverse event, hospitalisation cost would be borne by the authorities. There is a robust mechanism in place to track and monitor AEFI,” Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

However, after the resident doctors association of Delhi’s LNJP Hospital raised concerns over Covaxin on Sunday, the latest to raise a red flag is the Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors.

“The Central government has approved Covid-19 vaccine Covishield and Covaxin. Covishield has at least got an interim analysis report. However, Covaxin is still in the phase-III trials, where the trial is being done on healthcare workers. We strongly condemn this. Health workers should be given a choice of the vaccine. We demand that the government should provide a vaccine which has interim analysis,” said Dr Dayanand Sagar, president of Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors.

Making an attempt to allay concerns over Covaxin, NitiAayog member (health) Dr V.K. Paul said he too had taken the Covaxin and he has “zero” side effects. “Concerns about adverse effects of the vaccines are unfounded, negligible and insignificant, and the data shows we are in a situation of a lot of comfort,” he said.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India has vaccinated the highest number of persons in the world on the first day of vaccination with 2,07,229 people getting the shot. Giving data of all states, he said Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Punjab need to increase their vaccination coverage.

Fresh cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday dropped to 10,064 with 137 deaths being reported. Till date 141 persons have been detected with the new mutated UK variant of the Covid-19.