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There are about 120 coronavirus vaccine programs underway.
A group of Indian scientists warned that a deadline to launch a Covid-19 vaccine for public use is unfeasible.
The Indian Academy of Sciences warned against “any hasty solution that may compromise rigorous scientific processes and standards.”
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had said it “anticipated” that the vaccine would be released before August 15, which is India’s Independence Day.
Since then, the ICMR said the date “was not a deadline.”
The controversy first arose after a letter written by ICMR chief Balram Bhargava to 12 institutes selected to conduct human trials for the vaccine, called Covaxin, was widely shared on social media.
In it, he had ordered them to speed up human trials so that the vaccine could be released on August 15 by speeding up all approvals related to it.
Failure to comply, the letter warned, would be treated “very seriously.”
In addition to the confusion, a statement from the Ministry of Science and Technology removed a line from an earlier statement saying that some of the vaccines in development in the country, including Covaxin, were unlikely to likely be ready for public use by 2021.
This led to a storm of protests and criticism, with many saying the August 15 deadline was merely optical and would seriously damage India’s credibility.
Professor Partha P Majumder, president of the Indian Academy of Sciences, told local media that the month-long trial period announced by the ICMR was “unheard of,” adding that it “gives the industry a bad name. biomedical and pharmaceutical research. ” .
However, the ICMR has tried to clarify its comments, saying that the August 15 date “was not a deadline” and was simply an attempt to cut red tape, not an attempt to compromise security testing.
India’s Mint newspaper quoted an anonymous ICMR official as saying the initial communication had been misunderstood.
A vaccine would normally take years, if not decades, to develop. However, researchers around the world hope to accomplish the same amount of work in just a few months.
Most experts believe that a vaccine is likely to be available in mid-2021, approximately 12-18 months after the new virus emerged, officially known as Sars-CoV-2.
Even that would be a great scientific feat and there is no guarantee that it will work.
