New Delhi: Experts from India’s health domain on Friday said that there is no need to worry about COVID-19 vaccines as most citizens have been administered three doses of the vaccines already. The statement comes days after AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company admitted in a court that its COVID-19 vaccine does have side effects.
“AstraZeneca has admitted that Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) is a rare problem which occurred after the first dose of Covishield was taken by individuals in 2021. Now most individuals have been administered three doses, so we need not worry. All vaccines were given emergency use authorisation and they prevented deaths, hospitalisation and severity,” said Dr Suneela Garg, Chair Programme Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) to ETV Bharat.
We have been witnessing different variants of COVID-19 which are also variants of Omicron but have not witnessed a major outbreak yet, Dr Garg said. "Government should keep watch on the occurrence of cases, do genome sequencing and remove myths and misconceptions about Covishield,” she added. However, said that every vaccine is bound to have some side effects, she mentioned.
Covishield side effects: AstraZeneca had recently admitted in court documents that its COVID-19 vaccine (Covishield) has the potential to cause TTS, a rare side effect associated with blood clotting and is a serious and life-threatening adverse event. The vaccine was sold globally under the brand names Covishield and Vaxzevria.
SII connection with Covishield: Indian pharma giant Serum Institute of India (SII) is the manufacturer of Covishield, a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in India. Following AstraZeneca’s admission, the SII has said that it has stopped making and supplying Covishield. Earlier, AstraZeneca announced its decision to withdraw its version of the jab worldwide.
Government’s view: Although the Union Health Ministry is yet to come up with any official response over the development, a senior official said that in the last one and half years, around 400,000 COVID-19 vaccines were used domestically. In fact, after September 2022 when free booster doses were offered, the government did not procure any more doses of vaccine. “And at present there’s no point of recalling the vaccine in India when there is no stock,” the official said.
India’s present vaccination status: As per CoWIN data, more than 95.2 crore people in India are fully vaccinated to date. Data shows 1,74,9417,978 Covishield vaccine jabs have been administered to date. Similarly, 36,39,30,701 Covaxin jabs have been administered to its beneficiaries. Apart from Covaxin and Covishield, vaccines such as Sputnik V, Corbevax, iNCOVACC and GEMCOVAC-OM jabs were also administered to the people. In the last 24 hours, 32 people were vaccinated in India.
As per health ministry data, India at present has 792 active COVID-19 cases. According to the health ministry’s COVID monitoring group, INSACOG, JN.1 COVID-19 sub-variant is in circulation at present. However, no increase in disease severity or hospitalisation has been observed with this sub-variant.
Experts’ opinion: Talking to this correspondent Dr Tamorish Kole, renowned public health expert and past president of the Asian Society for Emergency Medicine said that AstraZeneca’s acknowledgement that the Covishield vaccine can cause rare side effects including TTS, which is characterised by blood clots and low blood platelet count highlights the need for continuous monitoring and assessment of vaccine safety, especially in the context of global health emergencies.
“TTS syndromes are most commonly observed between day 3 and day 30 after receiving the first dose of the vaccine. Beyond this period, the occurrence of syndromes is extremely rare. If an individual has not experienced TTS syndromes after the first dose, it is highly unlikely that the second dose would lead to the syndrome,” said Dr Kole.
He said that most people experience mild or moderate side effects after being vaccinated. “These typically disappear within a few days by themselves. Common side effects include pain at the injection site, Fever, fatigue, headache, muscle pain and diarrhoea are some of the common symptoms. While extremely rare, severe allergic reactions (such as anaphylaxis) have also been reported in the case of some COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr Kole.
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