COVID has claimed millions of lives, not to mention crippled our daily lives. So it’s natural that people get excited when they hear of vaccination drives being rolled out. But we have had a fair share of controversies there as well. So, let’s take a look at two of the most popular vaccines currently available in India and see how different they are.
Covishield has been developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and is reportedly 90 to 95 percent effective if the two shots are parted by around 2-3 months.
Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer, Serum Institute of India (SII), AstraZeneca’s manufacturing partner told News18:
You’ll be hearing some good news from the UK very soon… It would be a 90-95% effective vaccine if you just keep a two-to-three months’ gap between dose 1 and dose 2. They will make that public with documentation.
According to reports, Covishield is being advertised as one of the most promising vaccines available to the Indian market where cost and logistics play a huge role. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which have to be stored at ultracold temperatures as they use mRNA, Covishield is a vector vaccine that can be kept safe for 6 months in normal refrigerator temperatures.
Covaxin
Developed by Bharat Biotech and clinical research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine. It means that an inactivated virus is injected into a body trying to trigger an immune response. It is one of the oldest methods of vaccination.
The vaccine has been a massive subject for debate due to its controversial testing protocols, side effects among other ethical questions. Patients have to sign a consent form before taking the vaccine. This form states that the beneficiaries will be provided care in government authorised hospitals if they faced side-effects from the vaccine. They will also reportedly get compensated if they face adverse effects from the vaccine.
Bharat Biotech chairman Dr Krishna Ella spoke with News18 about the controversy and said:
The data is on its way. Phase III trials are going on. This sort of trial – 26,000 volunteers involved is a huge number. This has never happened. But there is not one word of appreciation for that. It is not easy to capture the efficacy now. It is easy to capture efficacy when there is a high disease burden.
Meanwhile, 1,91,181 healthcare and frontline workers have already received the vaccinations on Saturday.