- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Shubham Ghosh
AS the Narendra Modi government in India engaged with the Opposition over the widened gap between two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine saying the latter was politicising the issue, it has been reported that the scientific opinion was not favouring a wider gap.
The Indian health ministry announced the decision to change the gap between the two doses from six to eight weeks to 12-16 weeks on May 13, when supplies of the vaccine were found to be short and the cases surged across the country. It said the extended gap was recommended by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) based on real-life evidence mainly from Britain. However, NTAGI scientists, classified by the Indian government as three of the 14 “core members”, said the body did not have enough data to make such a recommendation, Reuters reported on Wednesday (15).
MD Gupte, a former director of the state-run National Institute of Epidemiology, said NTAGI had backed increasing the dosing interval to 8-12 weeks which is also the gap advised by the World Health Organization. He though said the group had no data related to effects of a gap beyond 12 weeks.
“Eight to 12 weeks is something we all accepted, 12 to 16 weeks is something the government has come out with,” he said, adding: “This may be alright, may not be. We have no information on that.”
His colleague in NTAGI Mathew Varghese also echoed the same saying the group’s recommendation was only for 8-12 weeks.
The health ministry said citing the head of NTAGI’s working group on Covid-19 that that the decision to widen the gap between the two doses was based on scientific evidence. It said on Twitter that the NTAGI had not objected to the decision.
In a statement, the ministry also said that it had accepted the 12-16 weeks recommendation from NTAGI’s Covid working group, just like a group of government officials who are looking into vaccine administration (NEGVAC or National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19). On May 15, officials of the Indian government said the gap was not raised to tackle vaccine shortage but because of a scientific basis.
J P Muliyil, a member of the COVID working group, said discussions took place within the NTAGI on increasing the interval but the body had not recommended a time frame of 12-16 weeks. “That specific number was not quoted,” he said.
NK Arora, chief of the Covid working group, did not comment on the matter but said all decisions were taken collectively by the NTAGI at large. A NEGVAC representative also refused to elaborate and said the body “respects the decisions of the NTAGI” and uses them for its work.
Shahid Jameel, an Indian virologist who recently walked out of a government body on virus variants after criticising the government over its response to the pandemic, said the authorities should clarify their position on the reasons behind increasing the gap between the doses.
