India’s homegrown COVID-19 vaccine is only 50 percent effective against symptomatic infections during the peak of the country’s deadly second wave, according to new research.
The new data analysed over 1,000 COVID-19 cases with a test-negative control case group, matching by age and gender, according to the study here which was published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
The experts say that India despite the horrible performance of its health system, which totally collapsed during the second wave of COVID-19, celebrated its indigenous vaccine as a major success.
Recently, India also celebrated achieving its one billion vaccination target as a unique milestone, but the recent study has “badly exposed the reality of such claims”.
The Indian government has been promoting the indigenous vaccine among healthcare workers, and so far, 138 million doses have been administered in India.
However, the vaccine’s rollout was marked by controversy as it was approved in the country before its third trial data was released.
The vaccine, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, was recently approved by WHO’s technical committee and was included in the list of acceptable vaccines, but only after a wait of four months.—APP
