Ali Anwar
The lives of millions of people are now at stake due to the false trials of the vaccine
The whole health system of India was completely collapsed when it was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was an acute shortage of oxygen supply and patients couldn’t get access to beds in hospitals. Some horrible scenes were witnessed during the pandemic in India as poor patients were treated in the rickshaws and outside the hospitals at the parking stands while a large number of people expired even before reaching the emergencies of hospitals.
Instead of producing an efficient vaccine of COVID-19, India could manage only a vaccine, which has much less efficacy as compared to other countries. A new study conducted during the pandemic has revealed its results in which it was found that India’s indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine is only half as effective. India celebrated and trumpeted its home-developed and produced vaccine as a major success but the latest study has exposed its tall claims. India also celebrated achieving its one billion vaccination target as a unique milestone but the study will prove to be a huge setback for the Modi administration who was taking credit for the indigenous vaccine. The Indian government was promoting the indigenous vaccine among healthcare workers and it has administered 138 million doses so far. It is pertinent to mention here that the vaccine was marked by controversy as it was approved in the country before its third trial data was released. It will further risk the lives of millions of people as a recent study showed that it lacks efficacy.
The Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, is India’s homegrown Covid-19 vaccine. The research revealed that the Covaxin was only half as effective against symptomatic infections during the peak of the country’s deadly second wave. It is much lower than the efficacy established during the initial tests, the research has established. It was the first real-world assessment of Covaxin that is one of the two main vaccines being used in India’s inoculation drive. According to the data obtained from the hospital workers, Bharat Biotech’s vaccine was only half as effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in a high-risk population during the devastating second wave of infections in India this year. The real-world study for Covaxin was published in The Lancet medical journal on November 24, 2021. The study conducted samples from April 15 to May 15. It compared the result with the trials conducted from November 2020 to January 2021 when the efficacy was 77.8 per cent. It was a late-stage trial of more than 25,000 participants. Now, the study included 2,714 health workers from Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, who were showing signs of infection and underwent RT-PCR testing between 15 April and 15 May during the peak of India’s second wave of the pandemic. All the medical workers were administered two doses of Covaxin at least 14 days before and had a high risk of exposure to the virus. The study further claimed that half the participants were found to have symptomatic Covid-19 as confirmed by RT-PCR tests.
The researchers found that the adjusted effectiveness of Covaxin against symptomatic Covid-19 was at 50 per cent overall and it was quite lower than the 77.8 per cent that preliminary results showed. After excluding participants with previous Covid-19 infections, the adjusted effectiveness dropped to 47% only. The report clearly indicates that India has pushed its frontline medical and common citizens towards a medical disaster once again due to this vaccine. The lives of millions of people are now at stake due to the false trials of the vaccine as the report has revealed. It was also seen that many of the Indian celebrities, political leaders and wealthy businessmen and their families got vaccinated from UK and US because they never trusted the claims of effectiveness of the indigenous vaccines. The Modi government once again resorted to false claims to project itself as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry while endangering its own population with the threatening risk of lives.
The aforementioned report has also created a stir in the health workers and countries which either imported or received vaccines from India as a donation. It is worth mentioning here that the Brazilian President is facing corruption charges in the case of misappropriations in the import of the Covid-19 vaccine from India.
The whole episode of the pandemic in India has been marred with controversies. Earlier, Modi was reluctant to admit the damage of the virus despite repeated warnings from the Congress-led opposition. The Modi administration also failed India during the lockdown as it was announced at the eleventh hour while forcing thousands of labour force to travel for hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes. The already suppressed labour force of India had to travel hundreds of kilometres to reach their destinations just due to the closure of the country announced by the government at the eleventh hour.
After getting failed on economic, security and foreign policy fronts, Modi is once again failing his country just due to his flawed policies. The less efficacy of the Indian vaccine will clearly shake the confidence of foreign investors as no one can afford to work in a country with so many risks. As India is a huge market with a large population, it will be another super-spreader of the virus for the whole world. The world must take stern action against the tall claims of the Indian government regarding its indigenous vaccine that is making the lives of millions of people in jeopardy.
