India Coronavirus Dispatch: It could be June until vaccines hit the market

Health workers torn between duty and safety, a long wait for the vaccines to come to market, little clarity around 'informed consent' for Covaxin-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

It could be June until vaccines become available on the market

Even as India's mammoth vaccination rollout began today, it might be until June or July before Covid-19 vaccines become available on the market, according to a report in ThePrint.

A senior government functionary closely involved in the planning and roll-out of the vaccination programme told ThePrint based on their assessment that it would take another six months for the vaccines to become available to anyone apart from the central government. That seems to be a realistic estimate right now as 660 million doses are needed to vaccinate 300 million people in the priority groups.  Read more here

Poorly paid Asha workers will be key for mass immunisation 

India's plan to vaccinate at least hundreds of millions of people and possibly over a billion relies on some of the lowest-paid health workers, according to a report in Quartz.

Trained vaccinators and supervisors will be tasked with handling the first phase of the rollout, which kicked off today and covers healthcare and frontline workers. However, local healthcare mechanisms like the ones that depend on accredited social health activists (Asha workers) will be critical when the vaccination is opened up for the entire population, the report said.

Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, and the more qualified auxiliary nurse midwives do the heavy lifting in community healthcare in India. Nearly all of them are women and are paid by funds that come from the central and state governments. Depending on which state the Asha workers belong to, they are paid only a monthly salary of Rs2,000-Rs4,500. Asha workers also receive small incentives for completing specific “recurring” tasks.  Read more here 

Health workers torn between duty and personal safety

Amid concerns around the efficacy of one of the two vaccines approved by India's drug regulator, healthcare workers who are first in line to get the shots are torn between professional commitments and personal safety, according to a report in the Scroll.

Health workers, including doctors and community healthcare workers, that Scroll spoke to were unenthusiastic about Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. 
 

Doctors also expressed scepticism about the government’s plans to monitor recipients of Covaxin for side-effects as if they are in a trial. Prabir Chatterjee, a West Bengal-based doctor who has spent several years serving India’s immunisation program said the government will rely on primary health workers for monitoring recipients for side-effects even while they will have other duties to perform. Yet many healthcare workers said they were duty-bound to take the vaccine, according to the report. Read more here

80% Indians comfortable with getting vaccinated: Global survey

Indians displayed the most trust in coronavirus vaccination in a global survey conducted by communications firm Edelman, according to a report in ThePrint.

The survey was conducted across 28 countries between October 19 and November 18 last year with 33,000 respondents participating in it. The survey found that vaccine hesitancy was a major roadblock in the rollout around the world. 80 per cent of Indians said they are willing to get vaccinated. Russians were the most hesitant with only 15 per cent willing to get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine became available to them and one in four people were comfortable with doing so within a year. Globally, one in two respondents were okay with getting a shot as soon as possible, while 29 per cent said they would do so in a year, according to the report. Read more here

Little clarity around 'informed consent' for Covaxin

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, which has been approved in a "clinical trial mode" can only be administered after the "informed consent" of the recipient. But, there is little clarity on the exact implementation of this, according to a report in The Hindu. 

People at the vaccine sites offering Covaxin must take the informed consent of the recipient as the inoculant has not cleared Phase 3 trials yet, but good consent requires time, Bhopal-based researcher in global health and bioethics Anant Bhan told The Hindu. Some people may want to take a day and think it over before consenting, but will this be allowed asks Bhan. Or will people be informed in advance which vaccine they would be getting to avoid delays in getting informed consent, he asks. Even then, who will do the explaining to the recipients and has the time taken for this been factored in, Bhan asks. Apparently, the dry-runs did not account for this, the report said. Read more here