oppn parties India Way Down In The Race For The Coronavirus Vaccine

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  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
D Gukesh is the new chess world champion at 18, the first teen to wear the crown. Capitalizes on an error by Ding Liren to snatch the crown by winning the final game g
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India Way Down In The Race For The Coronavirus Vaccine

By admin
First publised on 2020-07-13 07:38:49

About the Author

Sunil Garodia By our team of in-house writers.

About a week ago, ICMR had come under fire for issuing a directive to hospitals involved in conducting clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine that it is jointly developing with Bharat Biotech to "speed up" things so that the vaccine could be launched before August 15, 2020. It was pointed out that it was highly unethical for ICMR to use shortcuts in matters of public health. This magazine had published an article ("Shortcuts will not work for developing a vaccine for coronavirus" on July 6, 2020) that clearly pointed out that using shortcuts will be self-defeating.

Now the truth is out. The lead picture of this article is a graphic by India Today with data sourced from WHO which shows that India stands nowhere in the race for developing the vaccine and both the companies working on it are still in the Pre-Clinical Trial stage of the cycle. It takes a minimum of 9 months to progress from the first phase to the approval stage. The approval can then happen in a matter of days (which is most likely, considering the importance of a Covid-19 vaccine) or it can take months. In either case, a Covid-19 vaccine from India is not likely to be in the market before April 2021.

In today's world, with transparency in public matters and a glut of information from various sources, it is impossible to make exaggerated claims. ICMR should have known that sooner or later, the WHO would publish data on the progress of the development of the Covid-19 vaccine across the world and its bluff would be called out. It should have refrained from rushing things and should have presented a truer picture before the people.

Picture courtesy: India Today Group 

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