Give us vaccine choice: Swadeshi Covaxin can bring down number of symptomatic Covid cases
By Dr Suresh Singh
With around 2.61 crore vaccinated since 1st phase on January 16, 2021, against a target of 30 crore people, only time will tell how and when about 60-70per cent of population will have a semblance of community immunity.
As a doctor, if one gives me preference, I will choose Covaxin against Covishield for the reasons stated below. This does not mean that I will reject Covishield.
It is a whole-virion inactivated form, this simply means that it will have less side effects.
It has 81 per cent interim efficacy in phase-3 trial evolving a huge 25,800 volunteers across the country. Covishield has 53per cent efficacy when given 2nd dose in less than 6 weeks after 1st shoot (AstraZeneca –University of Oxford based report). But efficacy varies with gap between 1st and 2nd dose of injection. World is divided too much on Covishield.