COVID-19 vaccines: How It Works, Who Should Take It, Safety, Precautions And Thereafter

Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious Disease Specialist, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, tells us everything about the vaccines available in India.

By: Arushi Bidhuri | | Published: January 21, 2021 9:10 pm

सरकारी डाटा के अनुसार राजधानी दिल्‍ली में अब तक 131,935 स्‍वास्‍थ्‍य कर्मचारियों को कोरोना वैक्‍सीन दी जा चुकी है।

After a year-long pandemic, there finally seems to be light at the end of the tunnel in the form of vaccines. India began its immunization drive on January 16 to finally put an end to coronavirus. Researchers have been working around the clock to develop vaccines and check their efficacy levels. This article aims at the types of COVID-19 vaccines, how they work, their safety, who should get one and more. Also Read - Bihar to get free COVID-19 vaccination, even at private hospitals: CM Nitish Kumar

COVID-19 vaccine: How It Works And Who Should Take It?

The spike proteins in the virus envelope are used by the virus to attach to the host cell. These vaccines aim to make the spike protein available for the immune cells in order to incite antibodies to these proteins. This helps to prevent viral infection in the future. Also Read - Registration on Co-WIN 2.0 portal for COVID-19 vaccination to open at 9 am today, here's what you need to know

Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious Disease Specialist, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, says, “The Covishield vaccine used a chimpanzee adenovirus to facilitate the entry of spike protein into the cell. Covaxin used inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus while the mRNA vaccines enter the cell cytoplasm and use the host machinery to produce these proteins.” Also Read - US, China approve single-shot COVID-19 vax; India to get 3-4 vaccines in some weeks

“The Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine (in India, Covishield produced by Serum Institute of India) has resulted from completed phase 3 trials that show a vaccine efficacy of 60-90%. More importantly, the vaccine protects from severe Covid, hospitalization or death from Covid, which was evident from the vaccine recipients, none of whom showed these unfavourable outcomes,” she continues.

After Effects Of COVID-19 Vaccine

“Some fever, body aches and injection site pains are expected (like in many other childhood vaccines) and are not worrisome,” explains Dr Gilada. “Over 10 lakh doctors have already registered themselves to receive the vaccine, which speaks a lot about the trust in the vaccines.

The priority population to receive the vaccine are the healthcare workers followed by other frontline workers, followed by the elderly and those with comorbidities. “It is important to reiterate that these are populations at high risk of severe diseases and given that the vaccines are safe in them. There should be no hesitancy or fear in taking the vaccines,” assures the specialist.

Can The Vaccines Get Infected?

“The new vaccine will prevent patients from falling sick with COVID-19, but there isn’t enough data yet to say that these vaccines will not transmit the infection to others. There is a possibility that vaccinated people may get infected without developing symptoms, and then silently transmit the virus. If vaccinated people become are silent spreaders of the virus, they will put unvaccinated people at risk and continue the virus circulation. We will, therefore, have to continue masking and practice physical distancing in 2021. This is until enough people become immune to COVID to achieve herd immunity,” she explained.

What Are The Potential Challenges?

The expert thinks that one of the challenges will be to ensure that people return for the booster dose after getting the first dose. Also, reinforcing and ensuring masking and physical distancing norms will need to be a constant effort throughout.

“The most important challenge will be the vastness and the population of our country for a vaccination drive of this scale. We know from our Polio vaccination program that it took us over a decade to achieve 90% immunization in children. And here we are aiming to vaccinate the entire population in the shortest span of time. Also, the logistics to ensure an efficient cold chain down to the village level will need astute planning and execution.”

Do The Vaccines Work Against Virus Variants?

“Like all other RNA viruses, mutations arise naturally in SARS-CoV-2 as well when the virus replicates. Many thousands of mutations have already arisen, but only a minority are likely to be important and to change the virus in terms of infectiousness or danger,” said the expert.

“The new UK variant has mutations to the spike protein many vaccines are targeting. However, vaccines produce antibodies against many regions in the spike protein, so it’s unlikely that a single change would make the vaccine less effective. With this variant, there is no evidence that it will evade the vaccination or human immune response.

However, there is some speculation that the South African strain may not be covered. Studies are underway to evaluate these variation mutations. The SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn’t mutate as quickly as the flu virus, and the vaccines that have so far proved effective in trails are types that can easily be tweaked if necessary,” concluded Dr Gilada.

Published : January 21, 2021 9:10 pm

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