IIT Alumni Council disbands COVID-19 vaccine plan

NEW DELHI: IIT Alumni Council has announced formal disbanding of the COVID vaccine initiative that was part of the six-month C19 Task Force. The vaccine team concluded that none of the available approaches and claims were adequately backed by disclosed scientific data, patient research and clinical studies. In addition to getting the vaccine paradigm right, factors like adjuvants could play a critical role.

"Somewhere we have to consider the mathematics of an ambition statement. No more than 2 per cent of COVID patients need critical care. There is a fair surety that most of these can be cured by antibody based biologics.

"On the other hand, for vaccination, we would probably need to vaccinate 98 per cent of our population. Chasing 2 per cent of the population with a 98 per cent sure cure has a far better probability of success than chasing 98 per cent of the population with a 2 per cent surety of safety and efficacy," said Daljit Singh, an IIT Alumnus and former President of Fortis Healthcare.

Some of the vaccine approaches being attempted globally involve injecting a deactivated virus or simulated protein fragment into the body so as to induce the body to generate antibodies. The adverse reaction of the vaccine injection as well as the efficacy and lifespan of the antibodies is unknown. (IANS)

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