PM Modi during his Independence Day speech said, "India today has three vaccines that are in the stage of clinical testing. We are also ready to massively scale up production of these vaccines, as soon as scientists give a green signal."
Ever since the first lockdown, the Indian government has been giving false hope to the citizens. First, the hope that India will contain the spread of the virus with a 21 days lockdown, then a false hope of coming up with a vaccine soon...
Many countries have already begun their first phase of the vaccination drive. The US has already vaccinated over 2.3 million individuals.
What about India's good "relation" with the US? Did it really help our nation in procuring the vaccine?
Singapore, being a country with just over 5 million people have already begun their vaccination drive. A nation like Singapore which has just over 58,000 cases with the lowest fatality rate in the world, has also begun with vaccination drive. Whereas, a country like India with the second largest population in the world, we have been given false hopes of the vaccination to begin soon.
Following vaccines are at various stages of trials -
| Vaccine | Type | Manufacturer | Collaborator | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Covidshield | Chimpanzee Adenovirus | Serum Institute, Pune | AstraZeneca | Phase II/IIIApplied for EUA |
| Covaxin | Inactivated Virus | Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad | ICMR | Phase IIIApplied for EUA |
| ZyCoV-D | DNA Vaccine | Cadila Healthcare, Ahmedabad | Dept of Biotechnology | Phase II |
| Sputnik V | Human Adenovirus vaccine | Dr Reddy's lab, Hyderabad | Gamaleya National Centre, Russia | Phase II over, Phase III to start next week |
| NVX-CoV2373 | Protein Sub-unit | Serum Institute, Pune | Novavax | Phase III under consideration |
| Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine | Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad | MIT, USA | Phase I plus II human trials started | |
| HGCO 19 | mRNA based vaccine | Genova, Pune | HDT, USA | Clinical trials (Phase I & II) to start |
Once the vaccine is available for mass distribution, the government has already planned on vaccinating the health care workers, people over 50 years of age and with the comorbid condition to be vaccinated on priority.
As 2020 has almost come to an end, we can only hope for a better new year.