COVID vaccines might not be 100% effective: ICMR DG

New Delhi: Indian Council for Medical Research has said that vaccines for respiratory viruses are not 100% effective. The effectiveness can be only about 50-100% and this includes vaccines against coronavirus vaccines for respiratory viruses that are not 100% effective. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that there are three things key for a vaccine: safety (how safe it is for human use), immunogenicity (whether it is able to provoke the body's immune response), and its efficacy (how effective it is against the virus)," ICMR, Director General, Dr. Balram Bhargava said.

"And WHO says even if we get 50% efficacy that is more than acceptable. So for respiratory viruses, we will never get a vaccine with 100% efficacy. We are obviously aiming at 100% efficacy but we may get anywhere between 50 to 100%," he added.

Meanwhile, seven domestic companies – AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India, Zydus Cadila, Mynvax, Indian Immunologicals, Biological E, Covaxin of Bharat Biotech, and Panacea Biotech are developing vaccines to fight COVID.

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