Dangers And Doubts Surrounding Corona Vaccines

[Anta Assamey]

A good number of vaccines for Coronavirus have been in line to come up. But which is the best is the big question now. 

A tweet by @CitizenPolitix_ was like this: "There is big lobby promoting this at cost of risking public health. Covaxin is not even updated in vaccine tracker yet. No conclusive reports updated in any medical journal. @WHO not even listed this. This is unethical and compromised. Lot of underreporting happening on this".

Replying to the above, Shashi Tharoor's tweet: "The Covaxin has not yet had Phase 3 trials. Approval was premature and could be dangerous. @drharshvardhan should please clarify. Its use should be avoided till full trials are over. India can start with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the meantime".

In fact, Bharat Biotech has announced to the Press yesterday that they are going to hire 23000 volunteers for the third phase trials of Covaxin. So, Tharoor's question is how can the approval be given without Phase 3 Trials getting completed. 

Another Congress leader raised doubt over the approval of Bharat Biotech’s Coronavirus vaccine ‘Covaxin’. Dr Abhishek Singhvi says that ‘though the approval of both the vaccines are indeed the best news in past one year, scepticism shall continue.

He further claimed that the ‘News of beginning of Phase 3 of Covaxin itself is an oxymoron’ and questioned on ‘How can a vaccine get approval before conclusion of final phase of trial?’

Adding to this, there is a sensational statement by Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla. 

He said, "There are only three vaccines in the world who have proven efficacy... it's Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, these are the only three vaccines which have been proven to work. Everything else has been proven to be safe, just like water. But the efficacy to know how well a vaccine works, 70 per cent, 90 per cent, 80 per cent, has only been proven in these three vaccines," 

So, that's shocking news now. Are the most publicised vaccines ok to use? Will it have any effect on the Coronavirus? 

But one thing is cool. Mr Poonawalla used the term 'safe, just like water', but not 'perilous, just like poison". 

"Today, it was said by Bharat Biotech that the price of the Covaxin dose will be lesser than that of a water bottle. Now Mr Poonawalla says it is safe as water. So, is that really vaccine or just water?", questioned a netizen on social media which was taken by many on lighter note.