Lucknow: Amidst the second wave of COVID-19 in India, 20 people in the Siddharthnagar district of Uttar Pradesh have been administered the wrong vaccine dosage. The incident took place during a vaccination drive at a primary health centre in Barhni block.
In the first dosage, they received a shot of Covishield (AstraZeneca) in early April, but then in the second dosage, they were given locally developed Covaxin.
According to the officials, all the 20 people are healthy and no side effects have been seen so far.
Chief Medical Officer Siddharthnagar Sandeep Chaudhary told the Hindu that clarification was being sought from officials on the ground after a probe was conducted into the lapse and action would be taken accordingly. “It is a lapse because there is no guideline by the government of India that a cocktail [of vaccines] be administered,” the CMO said.
The Hindu quoted Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, saying, “The case was an abominable example of negligence by the BJP government and demanded that the affected persons be monitored by doctors.”
According to The Indian Express, Siddharthnagar District Magistrate, Deepak Meena said that “A nurse from the Primary Health centre was suspended over the incident, and action has been initiated against a doctor, who was in charge of the facility.” Several types of research are being conducted to see if it is safe to mix up various vaccines.
The difference between Covaxin and Covishield
Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech International Ltd, which is a Hyderabad-based biotechnology company. It is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology. This vaccine is inactive and contains a dead virus that is capable of instructing the immune system to develop a defense mechanism against the virus.
According to an analysis done by the National Institute of Virology, Covaxin antibodies can neutralize the UK variant strains and other heterologous strains.
Covishield is developed by Oxford-Astrazeneca and is currently being manufactured in India by Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. It has been developed using a version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. This induces an immune response, priming the immune system to attack the coronavirus if it later infects the body.
According to research done by Oxford itself, “The Oxford vaccine contains the genetic sequence of this surface spike protein. When the vaccine enters cells inside the body, it uses this genetic code to produce the surface spike protein of the coronavirus. This induces an immune response, priming the immune system to attack the COVID-19 if it later infects the body.”
According to a factsheet on the website of Serum Institute of India, “If you receive one dose of the COVISHIELD™ vaccine, then the second dose should be administered between 4 to 6 weeks after the first dose. However, there is data available for administration of the second dose up to 12 weeks after the first dose from the overseas studies.”
Though several vaccines are being developed, tested, approved, and administered across the world, their purpose remains the same. It is to create a mechanism in the immune system to protect the body against the attack and further development of coronavirus infection.