Agrees Dr Ishwar Gilada that while phase-3 clinical trials move ahead for these and other vaccines in the pipeline, it is the duty of all the governments, including the Indian government, to be geared to ensure that scientific breakthroughs translate into public health gains without any unnecessary delays. Whenever a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 becomes available for public health use, we must have strong health systems and other regulatory mechanisms already in place to be able to deliver it to those most in need of it globally.
Never before the world has conducted a vaccine research so quickly without compromising safety or scientific integrity. It is important to know if a vaccine is safe, immunogenic and effective in protecting us against coronavirus - and - it is equally important to ensure that everyone of us, especially those more vulnerable, to get it as soon as possible. Dr Anthony S Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had said: "What happens is that in the standard way of developing a vaccine, you don't jump to invest in the next step until you're pretty sure that the step you're in is working... Given the fact that we needed to do this as quickly as possible without sacrificing safety or scientific integrity, the federal government partnered with multiple of these companies and said, we're going to move fast and we're going to assume we're going to be successful. And if we are, we've saved several months. And if we're not, the only thing we've lost is money. But better lose money than lose lives by delaying the vaccine."
Shobha Shukla - CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Shobha Shukla is the founding Managing Editor of CNS (Citizen News Service) and is a noted gender justice advocate. She is a former senior faculty of Loreto Convent College and current Coordinator of Asia Pacific Media Network to end TB & tobacco and prevent NCDs. Follow her on Twitter @shobha1shukla)
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