File photo of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.
Stating that the vaccine could be ready in early 2021, Harsh Vardhan said the government is considering its emergency authorization, especially for older people and those working in high-risk settings.
- CNN-News18 New Delhi
- Last update: September 14, 2020 12:04 PM M. IST
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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said he would offer himself to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in an attempt to allay fears about it.
He said the vaccine could be ready by the first quarter of 2021. “While no date has been set for the launch of the vaccine, it could be ready by the first quarter of 2021,” Vardhan said.
The emergency authorization of the vaccine is also planned, the minister said during an interaction with his followers on social networks, ‘Jan Samvad’, on Sunday. He said the government is considering emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, especially for older people and people who work in high-risk settings. “This will be done after a consensus has been reached,” he said.
To allay fears about the safety aspect of vaccines, he said he would be happy to take the first dose of the vaccine if some people have a confidence deficit. By the way, a decade ago, the then Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had officially launched Vaxiflu-S, the country’s first indigenous vaccine to counter swine / H1N1 flu.
A recent study published in the British Journal, The Lancet, said there are growing doubts about vaccines in many parts of the world at a time when a vaccine to combat COVID-19 is eagerly awaited.
In India, hesitation is the lowest among other comparative countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and South Korea. The study explored vaccine acceptance levels and how they have changed in 149 countries between 2015 and 2019.
On Sunday, while explaining the vaccine candidates and their development in India, Vardhan said that the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) have been proactive in responding to the emerging situation of Supporting Candidate Advancement. to vaccines.
India is actively partnering with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and trials are underway in different phases regarding various vaccines in laboratories (private or public) and hospitals in India. He also emphasized why herd immunity or natural immunity is not something that will be achieved soon or safely, adding that a vaccine is a better way to establish immunity.
On the vaccine front, Serum Institute is developing a candidate vaccine in India in partnership with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. The trials were halted after the Comptroller General of Drugs of India searched for data on the safety profile of the vaccine due to unexplained illness in a volunteer in the UK. AstraZeneca declared the resumption of vaccine trials on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has entered the second phase of trials and has also presented data on the vaccine showing its efficacy in animal trials. Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D is also in the second phase of testing.
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