The pandemic has been an extended haul because of its rigorous spread and also the wait for its vaccine. And that extended wait seems to be finally getting over as India’s drug regulators have officially sanctioned two vaccines, Covishield by Oxford with AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)for emergency use. The country is prepared to initiate the world's most ambitious mass immunization programs ever.
India aims to vaccinate 300 million people by July. The Prime Minister tweeted that the vaccine rollout in India will begin from the 16th of January. Healthcare and frontline workers are going to be first in line to get vaccinated followed by people over the age of 50 and anyone under 50 with serious underlying health conditions. In a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadila, Russia’s Sputnik V, Biological E, and Genova are other vaccines within the pipeline that are in advanced clinical trials in India.
While the news all over India goes on and on about the vaccines, Indians are quite skeptical about getting vaccinated as revealed by a survey conducted by Local Circles. The survey results highlight that people are saying that they might choose to wait for a long time and get vaccinated later as the year passes by.
A major part of the population believes that the process of new vaccines has been accelerated because generally, it takes around seven to eight years to create a vaccine for such a deadly disease. Organizations promoting and encouraging the citizens to take the vaccines face multiple challenges including anti-science sentiments, a complex vaccination process, and the increasing amount of anti-vaccine advocates. Indian citizens are highly concerned about various side effects from the vaccines, efficacy levels, and a growing belief that one wouldn't be infected with the disease due to high immunity levels. and are hence hesitant to take a vaccine shot.
In the initial days of trial for Serum Institute’s Covishield, a participant who undertook the trial had alleged that the vaccine was causing him serious side-effects, both neurological and psychological. The Chennai based volunteer demanded Rs 5 crore in compensation for the trauma and the trials to be stopped immediately. In response to these claims, the Serum Institute of India said in a statement, “The allegations in the notice are malicious and misconceived. While the Serum Institute of India is sympathetic to the volunteer’s medical condition, there is absolutely no correlation between the vaccine trial and the medical condition of the volunteer. The volunteer is falsely laying the blame for his medical problems on the COVID vaccine trial.” The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI), earlier in November had suspended phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials in India. This was done as a result of AstraZeneca's decision to put a halt to the trials after a volunteer in the US began to evince signs of spinal inflammation.
The founder of local circles said that the government should inform the citizens about every update regarding the vaccines and take necessary steps to stop the spread of fake news and rumors to build citizens' trust in the vaccines. Unavailability of information about the vaccines and trials is a major reason why people do not want to rush into getting vaccinated. A few experts said that the lack of transparency about the approval process and also the announcement of emergency approval is raising concerns amongst citizens. Also when the emergency approval was announced, the DCGI did not take any questions from the media leaving the citizens’ concerns unanswered.
The efficacy of both Covishield and Covaxin is high and has shown great results in clinical trials. Oxford’s Covishield’s efficacy rate is at 70.42 % with a two-dose regime while there is no accurate data available for Covaxin about which Indians are citing their concerns. A huge number of Indian citizens want the Government to get Pfizer and Moderna to conduct Covid-19 trials in India so they can also be available commercially at the earliest.
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