COVID19 vaccines may not work against new variants: Covid Task Force chief
VK Paul, the chief of India’s COVID Task Force, has stated that the COVID19 vaccines used in India’s vaccination exercise may not be effective in the emerging situations. Details here.
VK Paul informed that globally, there are 3.6 billion people who are not vaccinated.
Speaking at an event organised by industry body The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, the chief of India’s COVID Task Force VK Paul said that there is a potential scenario that our vaccines may become ineffective in emerging situations.
Paul also emphasised the need to be ready to ‘modify’ the vaccines as per the requirements.
“We have experienced Delta shock and now the Omicron shock… there is a potential scenario that our vaccines may become ineffective in emerging situations in the wake of the last three weeks of living with Omicron, we have seen how such doubts have come up, some of them may be genuine, we still don’t have the final picture,” Pau was quoted.
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“…moving from the rapid development of generic vaccine, we have to be ready to be able to have a situation where resiliently we are able to modify the vaccines as require(d). This may not happen every three months but this could happen every year perhaps. Therefore, that needs to be factored in,” Paul added.
‘COVID19 pandemic not over yet’
The COVID task force chief emphasised that the COVID19 pandemic is not over yet and that the situation cannot be taken for granted.
“Pandemic is not over, we will continue to deal with uncertainty, even though we hope that we are possibly moving in the direction of endemicity, hopefully of a mild disease, that we can tackle,” Paul said.
The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a contagious virus. It is distinct from the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.
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He mentioned that the foremost priority is to make sure that there is universal coverage of the vaccines and no one is left behind. He informed that globally, there are 3.6 billion people who are not vaccinated.