Covid-19 is ruling millions of lives, besides crippled our daily lives. The talks about vaccination are already in play. The introduction of the covid vaccine in India started along with its debate in safety aspects. Thus, the Government is continuing the vaccination in volunteering and not mandatory because of a different environment, variation in populations, allergies, age, pregnancies, etc. India is a vaccine powerhouse in production. Let’s take two popular vaccines in India: Covishield and Covaxin.
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Covishield:
Covishild is a vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and produced by the serum institute of India. Covishield is a colourless opaque to the slightly brown vaccine. It is a type of recombinant vaccine or non-replicating viral vector, which means a weakened version of adenovirus from chimpanzees used; It does not cause any disease but can induce the immune response. It uses an intramuscular injection administered method. It is a two doses vaccination given in 4 and 12 weeks apart, and each dose consists of 0.5 millilitres. Covishiled can be stored at 2 to 8°C. Note that under 18/pregnant or breastfeedners are not treated with covishield.
Clinical studies:
Covishield underwent III phases, and the II and III phases were conducted across 15 different countries. Sixteen recipients have died so far. Reportedly, 16 covishield recipients have died post a few hours or post ten days after being shot. Surprisingly, 23 years old have died after vaccination. The age group of 40-50 and 50-60 each reported six deaths, and under 30 years reported two deaths after vaccination. DCGI claimed 70.42% overall efficacy of covishield.
Covaxin:
Covaxin is an Indian covid19 vaccine developed by Bharat biotech (a biotech company) in collaboration with ICMR (Indian council medical research), NIV (national institute of virology). It is a class of the Whole virion inactivated vaccines and has whitish translucent nature. Inactivated coronavirus or killed coronavirus strain means viruses can not replicate themself but can induce the immune response. Covaxin is produced with a high containment facility (biosafety level 3). In 28 days, it has two doses, and each dose consists of 0.5 millilitres. It uses the intramuscular administration method. It is a liquid-type vaccine that can be stored at 2-8°C. Under 18/pregnant or breastfeeders are not treated with covaxin notably.
Clinical studies:
It went through the preclinical and 3 phases of clinical studies in hamsters and non-human primates. Around 375 and 380 subjects were treated with covaxin in phase I and phase II, respectively. In phase I, only 15% of side effects were estimated. In phase II, the subjects’ age group was 12 to 65 years old, and enhanced cell and humoral immune responses were recorded. In phase III, a multi-centred trial occurred.
Covaxin supplied across the countries were Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Mongolia, omen, Maldives, and Mauritius. ICMR DG Balram Bhargava claimed that covaxin could defend against US variants also is noteworthy. So far, no deaths have been confirmed against covaxin, and this vaccine provides immunity in 12 months claimed by AIIMS. The efficacy is still not released by Bharat biotech.
Covishield vs Covaxin:
The data, as mentioned earlier, are officially announced by the Government. Covishield and covaxin are pretty similar in all aspects, but the development and type of vaccine varied. Vaccines should have low side effects and death rates. Comparatively, our homegrown covaxin has low side effects and no death rates so far. We can not say it is the best vaccine, but it is good comparatively. Also, the efficacy data for covaxin has not been released yet. As we know, no one can develop a promising vaccine in a short period.