Amid the COVID-19 apocalypse, certain data highlight the efficacy of desi vaccines

People are falling like ninepins to the COVID-19 virus and the situation has exacerbated due to the shortage in oxygen and medicine supply, besides the non-availability of hospital beds. Similarly, crematoriums and graveyards are out of space for the last rites of the dead. The Government’s job seems to be limited to just coming out with higher numbers each passing day — of the succumbed, and new and total infections — which, even if much lower than the actual figures as some people are claiming, present a horrifying picture. Amid all this, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) throws up the data that only 0.04 per cent of the 17,37,178 individuals who received the second dose of Covaxin were COVID-19 positive while 0.03 per cent of the 1,57,32,754 people who took the second dose of Covishield were infected. The figures are definitely a shot in the arm for the swadeshi vaccines and instil confidence in people. However, looked at minutely, these figures raise a few uncomfortable questions. First, how many individuals in these sets of 17.37 lakh or 1.57 crore people went for testing after the second dose? There must have been many asymptomatic patients (who show no symptoms but are carriers) who didn’t go for the RT-PCR or other COVID detection tests. It’s now established that most people don’t prefer to get tested in the absence of any symptom but still carry the lethal virus. Then, there must be those who didn’t inform the authorities even if they had mild symptoms.

Many people prefer to get treated at home rather than in a hospital, especially since there is a massive shortage of beds, oxygen and medicines. The accuracy of these figures, therefore, is suspect. Further, a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, Vaccine breakthrough infections with SARS-CoV-2 variants, states that in a group of 417 people who had received the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, two women were identified with the vaccine breakthrough infection, at an approximate rate of 0.50 per cent. Interestingly, the ICMR figures of vaccine efficacy, with the sample size in lakhs and crores, show more promising results than the findings in the top journal — with its limited sample size and accurate testing of all individuals. Well, if the sample size is in lakhs and crores, it is not possible to test all the individuals and, therefore, the results are bound to be far from accurate. However, ICMR chief Balram Bhargava has assured that the “data are not at all worrisome”. But we still have to take it with a pinch of salt. It’s time for the Government and its agencies to concentrate more on plugging the loopholes and not just get buoyed by the figures that are far removed from the actual and seem to serve only the end of the vaccine manufacturers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be making all-out efforts to save the country from the pandemic but such misleading figures by the ICMR only undermine his sincere endeavours.