Epidemiologist and public health expert Dr T Jacob John says AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine (Covishield) doesn’t have properties showing residual impact. If we have crossed the threshold of three-six months after getting the dose of vaccine, then whatever effect of the jab there may have been must have already worn off. Stray cases of blood clots seen in victims cannot be seen as the rule
Covieshield booster dose (Photo credit: PTI)
New Delhi: In an exclusive chat with News9live, India’s top epidemiologist, Dr T Jacob John allays our fears of the Covishield vaccine side-effect. He says it was one of the best options available to India during peak COVID-19 and that any impact of the jab would have worn out by now. Read excerpts of the interview here:
In a first, AstraZeneca has admitted that its COVID-19 vaccine, sold under brand names like Covishield, may in very rare cases cause severe side effects including blood clots. Is that possible?
In very rare cases, it is possible with every vaccine and not just a viral vector one like the Covishield. But to attribute all blood clot incidences that happened during peak COVID-19 to the administration of the jabs is erroneous. At that point, we were dealing with a new virus and little was known about it. Most of the victims that suffered from problems, including Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, may have been a result of the virus itself and not necessarily because of the vaccine that he/she was jabbed with.
To say, that the symptoms are showing up only now is ambiguous at best.
Should we worry because almost 80 per cent of our population has been jabbed with the viral vector vaccine?
There is no need for additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine so we need not worry about the side-effects that can manifest from the vaccine in future. As for people who have already been immunised with the Covishield vaccine in India, there is no cause for worry even for them. This is because no vaccine is known to have such long-term complications. If there were any, it would have surfaced within the 3-6 month threshold not many years afterwards. If we are not using the vaccine in our population now, I think we are pretty safe from whatever side-effect that AstraZeneca is talking about. It is faulty to say that the vaccine will have such a residual impact on human body.
There was some discussion surrounding the use of Covishield in the first place. As a reflection, would you say it was a good idea to immunize with a viral vector jab?
It was the best solution available to us back then and when we weighed the risk-benefits, this vaccine was the best bet for our population. The mRNA technology was not conducive to our temperature nor did we have the technology to develop the same. This viral vector jab was timely and our best case scenario. Did it save lives from Covid-19? Yes, it did! Did it leave some side effects? Maybe, but the impact of these effects are gone by now.
There is another worrying trend of the mumps being back in India. Has the virus become stronger or our vaccine against it is not working?
In India, we do not administer the MMR vaccine against mumps because it is comparatively more expensive than the MR (Measles Rubella) variant that we administer to children at a certain age. The MR vaccine was considered enough as the mumps is not such a serious condition and doesn’t result in a major health complication. However, depending on how the virus is behaving now, our policy makers can take a call whether to bring back the MMR dosage in our immunization programme. Only one has to ascertain that the vaccines are administrated in the cycle of 15 months and not delayed.
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