‘Premature Covaxin nod will shatter public confidence in research’

The Centre’s approval for Covaxin for carrying out vaccination against COVID-19 based on inference and without crucial third phase of trial would shatter public confidence in Indian research infrastructure, warned Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan.

In a statement, he said there was no second opinion that vaccination was an emergent need, but there was a global definition for the safety of vaccines. The present approval and recognition given to Covaxin did not fit in that definition. “The Centre has not spelt out the guidelines based on which the approval was given,” he said.

He warned that if the “half-baked” research of Covaxin led to any adverse impact, it would not end up as a failure of just Covaxin, but would shatter public confidence in the very concept of vaccination.

“If the common man starts to ignore vaccines, its impact would be costly,” he said, adding a wrong vaccine should not help the virus become more virulent.

The Centre’s claim that Covaxin was 110% efficient against the new mutant virus was making the country’s scientific research laughable. The BJP which was trying to make ‘self-reliant’ and ‘Make-In-India’ ideologies as its political tools had given approval in a hurry.