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The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) that approved indigenously manufactured Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin lacked experts of domain knowledge, health experts said.
According to the Health Ministry, eight out of nine members that participated in the virtual meeting-agreed and approved the recommendations except Dr. B. Gupta from NDMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital who expressed some concerns about the vaccine candidate.
The identity of the SEC members, which has been kept under wraps, was disclosed by the Ministry in response to a Rajya Sabha question on March 23.
The 10 members include Dr. Varsha Gupta, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Government Medical College Hospital, Chandigarh, Archana Thakur, Medical Director, Professor and HOD (Microbiology), G.B. Pant Hospital, Delhi, Abhishek Agarwal, Emeritus Professor, Department of Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Sushant H. Meshram, Professor and Head, Pulmonary Medicine Department, Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur, Anant Mohan, Professor and Head, Pulmonary Medicine, AIIMS, Delhi, A.P. Dubey, Professor of Paediatrics, ESI (PGIMSR) Hospital, Delhi, Arvind Bagga, Professor, Department of Paediatrics, AIIMS, Delhi, Dipendra K. Mitra, Professor and Head, Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics Department, AIIMS, Delhi, B. Gupta, Professor, General Medicine Department, NDMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi, and D.S. Arya, Professor, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, Delhi.
Former health secretary Sujatha Rao said the committee doesn’t have vaccine experts. “The committee is Delhi centric and dominated by disciplines not connected to vaccines and clinical research. Like in the US such important committees should be multidisciplinary with virologist, persons having a background in cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, public health and experience of conducting clinical research,” she said.
Health lawyer Murali Neelakantan expressed concerns given that the government tried to keep it a secret one could easily infer that it was something that the government was not keen for the public to know. “One only has to look at the composition of similar committees in the US for what it should have been,” he said.
According to Rao, when membership to committees is seen as an act of patronage then this happens. “It's unfortunate as SEC is such a vitally important committee and we have such solid expertise in the country. SECs must inspire confidence or trust which is very critical for scaling up vaccinations. US is a good example”.
Public health experts had earlier raised concerns on the grant of restricted use approval to Covaxin as there was no efficacy data available at the time. The approval came to Covaxin then came with riders though.
According to the Health Ministry, eight out of nine members that participated in the virtual meeting-agreed and approved the recommendations except Dr. B. Gupta from NDMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital who expressed some concerns about the vaccine candidate.
The identity of the SEC members, which has been kept under wraps, was disclosed by the Ministry in response to a Rajya Sabha question on March 23.
The 10 members include Dr. Varsha Gupta, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Government Medical College Hospital, Chandigarh, Archana Thakur, Medical Director, Professor and HOD (Microbiology), G.B. Pant Hospital, Delhi, Abhishek Agarwal, Emeritus Professor, Department of Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Sushant H. Meshram, Professor and Head, Pulmonary Medicine Department, Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur, Anant Mohan, Professor and Head, Pulmonary Medicine, AIIMS, Delhi, A.P. Dubey, Professor of Paediatrics, ESI (PGIMSR) Hospital, Delhi, Arvind Bagga, Professor, Department of Paediatrics, AIIMS, Delhi, Dipendra K. Mitra, Professor and Head, Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics Department, AIIMS, Delhi, B. Gupta, Professor, General Medicine Department, NDMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi, and D.S. Arya, Professor, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, Delhi.
Former health secretary Sujatha Rao said the committee doesn’t have vaccine experts. “The committee is Delhi centric and dominated by disciplines not connected to vaccines and clinical research. Like in the US such important committees should be multidisciplinary with virologist, persons having a background in cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, public health and experience of conducting clinical research,” she said.
Health lawyer Murali Neelakantan expressed concerns given that the government tried to keep it a secret one could easily infer that it was something that the government was not keen for the public to know. “One only has to look at the composition of similar committees in the US for what it should have been,” he said.
According to Rao, when membership to committees is seen as an act of patronage then this happens. “It's unfortunate as SEC is such a vitally important committee and we have such solid expertise in the country. SECs must inspire confidence or trust which is very critical for scaling up vaccinations. US is a good example”.
Public health experts had earlier raised concerns on the grant of restricted use approval to Covaxin as there was no efficacy data available at the time. The approval came to Covaxin then came with riders though.
( Originally published on Apr 06, 2021 )
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9 Comments on this Story
 | K P3 hours ago Covaxin is being administered all over India successfully and is the only trusted jab.Fat of Covishield is not known.Only WHO is supporting by declaring that benefits outweighs risk.And what is the risk?Horrible death.There is nothing wrong with Indian made vaccine except it's manufacturer is falsely claiming that Hyderabad based company is engaged in Nasal spraying vaccine for Covid.So far IAS officers are concerned,forget their giberish talkAt the time of writing comments,one lady ISS was molested in Haryana while one young lady ISS,DM posted in Bihar was severly beaten by her husband.So let them roar like African lions.Lethal virus is taking heavy toll,India needs more vaccines either by import or by encouraging smuggling which is preferable to smuggling of gold by politicians helped by bureaucrats.By KPPASWAN |
| Meena And Srinivas3 hours ago A babu is the so called health expert commenting on the non suitability of all other vaccine experts. She would have been perfectly okay if all 10 were babus and nothing to complain about. This has been the tradegedy of our country. |
| Rakesh Srivastava13 hours ago The educational qualifications of the writer Ms Suhatha ,IAS , is mentioned as M A in History ! Ironically she is commenting upon the competence of highly qualified senior faculty members of prestigious medical institutions of India. The top most doctors of India like Dr Guleria, director AIIMS and Dr Paul Chairman of Covid task force got the COVAXINE on very first day on 16th Jan . Honorable P M Modi ji , Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan got the Covaxine last month. Now C M Yogi ji has taken Covaxine . Unfortunately at present capacity, the Bharat Biotech ( founded by Dr Ella 25 yr back ) is able to manufacture only 4 millions doses of per month of COVAXINE. SII ( founded 55 years back ) is producing 60 millions doses per month of COVISHIELD. |