STORY OF TWO VACCINES

In India, there are two COVID-19 Vaccines available for mass vaccination, namely COVISHIELD and India’s first indigenous Vaccine COVAXINE. India first vaccinated frontline workers engaged in fighting with Corona Virus like Doctors, Nurses and all other health workers including police, Ambulance Drivers, Sweepers etc.

The second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive has already begun in India from Mar 01, 21 with these two Vaccines. Here is a comparative study of both the vaccines – Covaxin and Covishield.

DEVELOPERS : Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine, which has been prepared on a tried and tested platform of dead viruses.

This vaccine is developed with Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell-derived technology. They contain inactivated viruses, which can not infect a person but still can teach the immune system to prepare a defence mechanism against the active virus.

These conventional vaccines have been in use for decades now. There are vaccines for some other diseases as well which are made using the same technology.

Covishield has been developed by the Oxford-AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII). Covishield has been prepared using the viral vector platform which is a totally different technology.

A chimpanzee adenovirus – ChAdOx1 – has been modified to enable it to carry the COVID-19 spike protein into the cells of humans. Well, this cold virus is basically incapable of infecting the receiver but can very well teach the immune system to prepare a mechanism against such viruses. The exact technology was used to prepare vaccines for viruses like Ebola.

DOSES : There is no difference between the two vaccines in terms of dosage. Both of them follow a two-dose regimen, administered 28 days apart.

STORAGE : Both Covishield and Covaxin can be stored at 2-8 degrees Centigrade, which is a household refrigerator temperature. This makes both the vaccines most suited for Indian conditions as most of the vaccines here are kept at the same temperature range. This also makes the transportation and storage of both vaccines easier.

EFFICACY : Both the vaccines have shown more than satisfactory results ever since the inoculation started in India. The effectiveness of the Covishield vaccine is nearly 90% as per the global reports and Covaxin’s 81% according to interim 3rd phase trial results.

SIDE EFFECTS : After injecting the vaccine, you may experience pain at the site of injection. Some people also experience side effects such as headache, joint pain, may feel like feverish. These side effects do not persist for long and generally goes within a day or two. (Acknowledgement : Pharmeasy.in)

INTERVALS BETWEEN DOSES :

COVISHIELD :   Interval between 1st and 2nd dose was initially 4 weeks.  Then it was changed o 6-8 weeks   and  on 13 May 21 it was changed to 12 to 16 weeks.  Presently following 12-16 weeks.                                                    

COVAXINE : Interval between 1st and 2nd dose is 4-6 weeks and there is no change.

MY OBSERVATION : Me and my wife have taken both the doses of Covishield vaccine (after an interval of 6 weeks) and we had no side effects except fever after First dose for me only and fever lasted for 24 hours only. My wife had pain on the site of Injection after First dose and Second dose went very smooth for both of us.