Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam on November 23 formally announced COVID vaccine is expected to be available soon. The announcement comes close on the heels of the Pharma major AstraZeneca announcing that an interim analysis of clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and Brazil showed that it was 70 percent effective on average, becoming the third drug maker to announce promising results to contain the deadly virus.
The vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, showed 90 percent efficacy in one dosing regimen when the vaccine was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least a month later.
Earlier multinational, Pfizer, announced promising results from its ongoing phase-3 trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Also Moderna, the U.S.-based biotechnology firm, indicated similar news from human trials (phase 3) of its m-RNA vaccine.
The results are a sign that the vaccines are successful in their primary job of protection though their efficacy at curbing disease the transmission was still to be evaluated. The results were at infancy given the fact that announcement by these companies were not in a scientific journal, implying that a review by independent experts was pending. Every vaccine candidate that passes a significant loop is a win for humans as it opens the way to new practices and ways of applying science that would have been otherwise improbable in the pre-pandemic world. There is a need to be prepared as the new vaccine seems to be around the corner. The Chief Secretary of the J&K making the announcement as well as underscoring the need to maintain efficient coordination between various implementing agencies including District Administration, Police, ULBs, PRIs, and Health Department is a welcome development and need to be worked upon to ensure it was available without hassles as and when it was finally available.
The vaccines have surely raised hope about the potential end to the nearly year-long pandemic which severally affected lives and the livelihood.
As per the experts the vaccines which are based on a novel technology that uses the synthetic messenger RNA to activate the immune system against the virus are expected to become available for public use next month. It is important that preparations are made and efforts should be made to make it available to the vulnerable lot in the first instance.
