“Vaccine nationalism is not a good thing in challenging times like this. We don’t want other nations to indulge in vaccine nationalism and depriving others,” said Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India K. VijayRaghavan on Thursday.
‘Limited use’
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) on Thursday to dispel fears about the coronavirus vaccines, Mr. VijayRaghavan said, “The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved a limited use of the vaccines keeping in mind the risk involved if the disease accelerates, which has happened elsewhere.”
Fielding a range of questions from hesitancy among medical workers to roll-out of Co-WIN for senior citizens to safety concerns, Mr. VijayRaghavan tried to allay fears in the general population.
“There have been very few adverse effects even among the other vaccines, which are in trial or are being deployed. We are investigating every adverse effect with scientific rigour,” said Mr. Raghavan. “There is no cause of concern for safety. Safety and immunogenicity trials are robust and strong. Rare events might happen; we must keep a watch on it,” he said.
“Public boarding for citizens will happen only after the frontline and healthcare workers are vaccinated in time to come and the app will be rolled out for general public,” said Mr. Raghavan, answering a question posed by K. Padmanabhaiah of ASCI, who said he tried to login to the app thrice without success.
“Efficacy is measured during clinical trials with half the people getting the vaccine and the other half placebo. The efficacy is relative to the number who don’t develop immunity. Our goal is to immunise the population faster,” said Mr. VijayRaghavan who expressed concerns about the mutations of the virus that are being reported from across the world.
“We expect people who can pay to pay for the vaccine and we also want people like industrialists and businessmen subsidise the vaccine for those who cannot afford it,” he added.