India plans to study effectiveness of AstraZeneca, Bharat Biotech vaccines

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will review 3,000-5,000 people above 45 years of age, of which up to 80 percent will be those who have taken the AstraZeneca vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India. The rest will have taken Covaxin jointly developed by local firm Bharat Biotech and ICMR.

Reuters

May 26, 2021 / 18:06 IST

Representative image

India's main health agency will start a study next week to examine the effectiveness of AstraZeneca's vaccine and the homegrown shot Covaxin against coronavirus, a scientist said on Wednesday.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will review 3,000-5,000 people above 45 years of age, of which up to 80 percent will be those who have taken the AstraZeneca vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India.

Also Read: COVID-19 | Worst is not behind us until positivity rate is brought below 5 percent, says India's eminent virologist Gagandeep Kang

The rest will have taken Covaxin jointly developed by local firm Bharat Biotech and ICMR.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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