Don’t you want to have best armor in this battle against corona virus ?

On 31 December 2019, a war stroked China and spread subsequently around the globe in the name of Covid 19 a new form of Corona virus. According to The Himalayan Times Nepal also got involved in the war as the first case was detected in Nepal on 13th January 2020.

Armor is something which is protects us during war and almost a year later, Nepal government launched its armor in the form of  vaccination drive against Corona virus on 17th January 2021, 2 days after Department of Drug Administration (DDA) gave approval for emergency use of vaccine named Covishield produced by Serum Institute of India. Being one of the frontline workers, I had the option to get vaccinated. However, going along with the rumors that vaccine’s safety and efficacy wasn’t studied enough, I didn’t take the vaccine.

As months passed, the second wave of Corona virus began hiking in UK, cases rising slowly in India as well. Meanwhile, Nepal government announced that Chinese vaccine named Vero Cell would be administered from 7th April 2021 which was approved for emergency use around 2 months earlier. With this announcement, I got another opportunity to be vaccinated. But this time, before deciding on whether or not to get vaccinated, I wanted to find details about vaccines safety and efficacy.

As per the website of “The history of Vaccines” an educational research by the college of physicians of Philadelphia, Vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting 10-15 years. Further, As per the website of Center for Disease control and prevention (CDC), there are 7 stages of a vaccine development which are as follows:

1.     Exploratory stage

2.     Pre-clinical stage- whereby trial is done on animals.

3.     Clinical development- whereby trial is done on human beings and has following sub phases-

 i.      Phase I test new drug for first time in small group of 20-80 adults

ii.      Phase II –test in larger group  of few hundred to find adverse effect

iii.      Phase III- studies on larger population of different regions and countries and often step right before a new treatment is approved. This trial can determine efficacy rate.

iv.      Phase IV: Studies for longer time to review long term effects

4.     Approval and licensing: After a successful Phase III trial, FDA will issue license. Phase IV is optional. Thereafter Regulatory review and approval, Manufacturing and Quality control take place as 5th, 6th and 7th steps.

After finding about the lengthy process of vaccine development, I had a big question striking my mind- Have Covishied and Vero cell vaccines covered all of these development stages? Are the armours really safe?

With the thirst for answer, my google search took me to the website of World Health Organization (WHO) which showed that WHO had given Emergency Use Listing Approval (EUL) for 4 manufacturers of vaccines including Covishield approved on 15th February 2021. EUL meant even if vaccine wasn’t fully licensed, based on risk assessment concluded through trial results, the vaccine was safe to for public health emergency. Hence, normal vaccine development period of 10-15 years had to be reduced as far as possible to immediately save more lives. As a part of EUL, vaccines must continue to generate data to enable full licensure and countries like Nepal can accelerate their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID 19 vaccines.

Damn, Covishied was safe and I should have got vaccinated! However, opportunity was gone.

On the other hand, EUL of WHO for Vero Cell was under review despite of receiving emergency use approval in countries like China, UAE and Peru. After this study, now it was time to decide. What would you decide if you were in my place? As it is rightly said no risk, no return, I wanted to take the risk and on 7th April 2021, I got vaccinated against Corona Virus. Exactly after a month of my vaccination, I got good news that WHO approved Emergency use of Vero Cell.

As of date, Nepal has approved Covishield, Vero Cell and Sputnik vaccines for emergency use. As per New York Times publication updated on 18th May 2021, these vaccines have efficacy rates are 76%, 78% and 91% respectively. So these vaccines are safe and effective. 

Don’t you want to have best armor in this battle against corona virus?

 If yes, please register your name in the online application portal for next vaccination drive at https://vaccine.mohp.gov.np/ . 

Writer dhakal is a Chartered Accountant, currently working in a commercial bank in Nepal.