Amid a sea of distressing news the Covid-19 pandemic brought all throughout the month, a silver lining, however, has emerged at last and the extra elation stems out of the fact that it has come from within the country. A Hyderabad-based vaccine maker has announced that they have traversed a major part of their vaccine making endeavour and is on the threshold of conducting trials on humans, the last yet the most significant stage of the overall painstaking efforts. This is a major news by any count and if things progress as per expectations, India and the world for sure will get the most suitable weapon in stampeding the pandemic. The world attention so far has hovered around Oxford, Harvard and other highly-regarded institutions, but from now onwards, India will be very much on the radar.

An extra dose of hope can be observed particularly due to the fact that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology, Pune have been the collaborators of the project and the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has also given the green signal for starting human trials from July itself after it found the pre-clinical data to be highly satisfactory. So far from the reports that are available on public domain, it is clear that the next step comprising two phases should take not more than three to four months and if the expectations are met, the vaccine could be rolled out in around four to five months. It can be recalled that a host of theories and claims had flown fast during the last six months  since the Covid pandemic started its devastating run and these are also going on unabated. But, the striking commonality of these claims is that, however sophisticated the lab may be where the vaccine making activities are pursued or the large-scale funding involved or the most brilliant scientists and virologists engaged thereto, it is certainly not before a solid 12 months or so at least for anything cheering to arrive. In that respect, if the Indian effort manages to make things prepared within the year-end from now, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

It is relevant to mention that virtually a rat race is going on in the labs all across the world and there are more misses than hits. The commercial aspect is also a major factor and it needs no mentioning that the country which comes out first in the making of the vaccine will be seeing a huge financial fortune showering in.

Although it’s not the stage to jump to any conclusion that the vaccine has finally arrived, the Indian effort is really a light at the end of the tunnel and hence deserves kudos

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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