COVID vaccine for children by September, says ICMR-NIV director

An indigenous COVID-19 vaccine will be available for children in India by September, said a senior scientist in an interview to India Science, an OTT channel, which belongs to the government’s science and technology department.

Priya Abraham, director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology (Pune) made this announcement, even as Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine trials for children in the age-group of 2-18 years are underway and are in phase II and phase III stages.

Abraham was quoted as saying that the trials results will shortly become available and will be presented to the regulators. She reckoned that by September or just after it, India may have COVID-19 vaccines for children, said a Hindustan Times report.

ICMR and Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech have co-developed Covaxin, the first Made-in-India COVID-19 vaccine. Covaxin, along with Covishield and the Russian Sputnik V are being administered in India under the national COVID-19 immunisation programme.

Also read: COVID care: ‘Be patient with children, understand their emotions’

The HT report pointed out that another COVID-19 vaccine for children waiting approval for emergency use authorisation before the Drugs Controller of India is ZyCoV-D. According to Abraham,  vaccine trials are going on for this vaccine for children manufactured by Zydus Cadila.

On the question of booster doses, her view was that studies were being conducted on booster doses abroad. They had experimented with seven different vaccines but for now the WHO (World Health Organisation) has pulled the plug on it.

This is because they want other countries to catch up with COVID vaccination. There is an “alarming vaccine gap” between high-income and low-income countries. However, she was convinced that recommendations for boosters will definitely come in the future.

On the hotly-debated subject of safety concerns over mixing different COVID-19 vaccines, Abraham further clarified that there have been cases where inadvertently two different vaccines were given in two doses.

The samples of people who took two different vaccines were tested at NIV and they discovered that the patients were safe. There were “no adverse effects”, and in fact, immunogenicity was a little better, she added.

“So, it is definitely not something which will cause a safety issue,” she said, adding that this  phenomenon was being probed and they would in a situation to give more details in a few days.

Also read: Mixed doses of Covishield and Covaxin provide better results: ICMR study

Above all, Abraham addressed vaccine hesitancy among people and stressed that vaccination is a must.

The studies conducted at NIV have shown vaccines work against the variants, she said. There are antibodies produced in the bodies of vaccinated people but their efficacy may drop two to three folds in case of deadly variants.

But at the end of the day, “vaccines are still protective against the variants”, she reiterated. They may become less effective in the face of variants but they hold the key to thwart patients from getting serious and requiring hospitalisation or even die.

“So, whatever the variant, vaccine is till now protective against all, including the Delta variant. So, there should not be any hesitancy at all,” said the scientist.

A Zee News report added that she also warned people not to collect together in crowds, as it will invite the next wave of COVID-19.

“New variants will keep on coming. We have two weapons which are the biggest protection. These are: wearing mask properly and actively encouraging everyone to get vaccinated. Then even if a wave comes, it will not be a big one”, she said, the report added.