In the recent confusion around the Covishield dose gap, the Indian govt countered the experts’ claims on the gap interval. The confusion began when 3 members of the NTAGI (National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) told Reuters that the advisory body did not have enough data to make such a decision.
Background
On May 13, 2021, the Centre made revisions to the vaccine guidelines and changed the gap between the first and second doses of the Covishield vaccine. Earlier, the gap between the two doses was 6-8 weeks. Later, the Centre announced that it is advisable that a 12–16-week gap is between the two doses. The move came at a time when there was a massive shortage of vaccine in the country and the cases were at an all-time high.
Also Read: COVID-19 Vaccine Guidelines: 12–16-week gap for Covishield; Recovered patients should wait 6 months
Details
As the vaccination efforts in the country are at full swing, a new confusion has emerged in the gap between the AstraZeneca’s Covishield that’s manufactured by Serum Institute of India. While speaking to Reuters, 3 officials from the NTAGI said that it did not have enough data to increase the earlier gap of 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks.
M.D. Gupte, who serves in the NTAGI and is a former director of the National Institute of Epidemiology backed the earlier dose interval (8-12 weeks) – the same gap as advised by the regulatory body WHO. However, he said that NTAGI did not have any data on how the effect changes beyond the period of 12 weeks.
“Eight to 12 weeks is something we all accepted, 12 to 16 weeks is something the government has come out with. This may be alright, may not be. We have no information on that,”
-said Gupte.
The same notion was agreed by another member of the 7-strong COVID-19 task force, Matthew Varghese. Varghese also claimed that the group had the similar recommendation.
Another NTAGI member, J. P. Muliyil, claimed that while there had been certain discussions on whether the vaccine dose interval should be increased, the body had not recommended the 12-16 weeks gap to the Centre.
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Centre Refutes Claims
As the issue started getting traction, Indian health minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan took to Twitter and claimed that the decision to increase the gap was taken in a transparent manner on scientific data.
“Decision to increase the gap between administering 2 doses of #COVISHIELD has been taken in a transparent manner based on scientific data. India has a robust mechanism to evaluate data. It’s unfortunate that such an important issue is being politicised!”
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Decision to increase the gap between administering 2 doses of #COVISHIELD has been taken in a transparent manner based on scientific data.
India has a robust mechanism to evaluate data.
It's unfortunate that such an important issue is being politicised!https://t.co/YFYMLHi21L
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) June 16, 2021
Similarly, the Chairman of NTAGI, N K Arora claimed that the decision to increase the gap between the two doses was based on scientific evidence. Further, Arora also claimed that there is no dissent among the members of the COVID-19 working group and denied claims of other NTAGI scientists not backing the decision.
Fundamental scientific reasons for dose gap increase
Press release was issued today by the Press Information Bureau in which N. K. Arora was quoted saying-
“In the last week of April, the data released by Public Health England, UK’s executive agency of the Department of Health, showed that vaccine efficacy varied between 65% to 88% when interval is 12 weeks. This was the basis on which they overcame their epidemic outbreak due to the Alpha variant. The UK was able to come out of it because the interval they kept was 12 weeks. We also thought that this is a good idea, since there are fundamental scientific reasons to show that when interval is increased, adenovector vaccines give better response. Hence the decision was taken on May 13, to increase the interval to 12 to 16 weeks.”
Future changes in Covishield dosage interval
Dr. N. K. Arora said how the virus and the vaccination are both dynamic and if the experts tells the committee that a smaller interval is better, the committee will take the decision on its merit. He further added-
“On the other hand, if it turns out that the current decision is fine, we will continue with it. This is the most important.”
