Vaccine Hesitancy

Let me get one thing straight out before I even begin. I am a patron of science. I am someone who prefers to have no answer to a question or an issue rather than have an unscientific one. I must also add that as I am an average human being, I do have my beliefs but they are not superstitious. In any case, I have always loved Physics, though I am not a Physics student anymore.

Having said that, I am hesitant to take Covid-19 vaccine. The hesitancy is only for Covid-19 vaccine, not for any other vaccine like Tetanus, Flu, Measles, Polio etc.

Why am I hesitant? Well, to elaborate on that I must first tell you that I live in India and right now there are only two vaccines available for us- Covaxin and Covishield. Covaxin has been developed indigenously by a company called Bharat Biotech and Covishield is the Indian market name for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (AZ). 

Unlike AZ vaccine which is a viral vector vaccine- uses tweaked adenovirus to transport Coronavirus's spike protein, Covaxin is an whole virion inactivated vaccine. What this means is that its the complete coronavirus weakened to the extent that it will not cause any disease. The issue with this is that the phase-3 trial results are not in public domain yet, there is only a press release by the company which states that efficacy is 78-81%. There was an investigative report by a news outlet The Wire according to which Covaxin could potentially, and very rarely, cause Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) and Vaccine Associated Enhanced Respiratory Disease (VAERD). Both are dangerous complications. You can Google and find out about them.

The company does NOT mention these complications in their fact-sheet. Hence, I have decided not to take Covaxin until its Phase-3 trial results are out in public domain and peer-reviewed. 

I am also not taking AZ vaccine as in many countries in Europe, people under the age of 30/40 have been advised to take vaccine other than the AZ one due to the risk of rare blood clots. In India however, the govt has claimed that the risk is far less. But India also has pathetic data management of post-vaccination serious side effects. You can read about the complacency of Indian govt here. 

My hesitancy will only vanish if the company and the government is transparent with me. If I have all the information I need then I can and I will take an informed decision.