COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Recipients cannot choose between Covishield and Covaxin initially

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had recently granted emergency use authorisation to two COVID-19 vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

Moneycontrol News

January 13, 2021 / 04:00 PM IST

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India is set to launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16 with two vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin – but the recipients will not be given the option to choose between the two, signalled the Union health ministry.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had recently granted emergency use authorisation to two COVID-19 vaccines – Covishield, developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

With the vaccinations scheduled to begin on January 16 starting with healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase, the Centre has said that all the vaccine vials -- 1.1 crore of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India and 55 lakh of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech -- will be received by January 14.

Ahead of the vaccination drive, there seems to be expectations among many that they would receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in India instead of the homegrown Covaxin. Asked if the recipients would have the option to choose between the two vaccines, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "There is no such option available to any of the beneficiaries in any country."

This means people will not get to choose the vaccine they will be administered. They can get either of the two COVID-19 vaccines that have got emergency use approval in India.

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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