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  • Which vaccine is more effective?


    Confused which vacine is effective among the existing ones? Looking out for the top one among all? On this page our experts shall let you know if you should choose the one availabable or wait for an upcoming one.

    I would love to hear your opinion regarding the most effective vaccine amongst the ones available in the market namely the Covaxin, Covishield and the Sputnik, which is the best for young adults and also cost effective. Also is it okay if I wait for a better version of the vaccine to arrive so as to reduce the side effects caused after taking the shots?
  • Answers

    6 Answers found.
  • Covid19 is a pandemic. When it started there was no information about it to the general public or even the medical community. There was no effective medicine to cure the infection. It was identified that the Covid infection is caused by a virus of the Corona virus family.The medical fraternity, with whatever little they know about the previous SARS virus attack caused by the Corona virus, experimented with trial and error type treatment.

    the infection being caused by a virus, the only effective way to prevent was by developing a vaccine. But vaccine development is not a one day's job.It would take many years. Waiting for such long would have eliminated the majority of human species. So everywhere the research was being speeded up and governments and medical fraternity were read to take some calculated risk in order to curtail fatalities.

    Thanks to the research scientists and medical fraternity and volunteers, a few vaccines were developed and found to be of some effectiveness. Some of the standard procedures followed till day in vaccine release had to be curtained and shortcut due to emergency situation,

    So as of now there are only a handful of vaccines against Covid 19. They are in use for past few months. From the experience gained by their till day use, the research scientists ,pharma accompanies and governments and medical personnel feel they are effective inoculations.

    As the vaccines are not widely available everywhere, and only some specific brans or names are available at each areas, people do not have much choice. They have to choose from a few handful names. Almost all of them are equal in their effectiveness.

    The vaccines were till now used only in adults eighteen years and above. Research and trials are going on for those below i8 years. One or two countries reportedly have just started using it for older children.

    Hence instead of waiting for a particular brand of vaccine, your priority should be to get vaccinated with whatever brand vaccine is permitted and available at your place. It should be ensured that the same brand is used for the booster dose if any. It is better to use the one which was mostly used in your country or place and is in use for past many months.

    You may read the answers given for a question in ISC Ask Experts section- Sputnik or covaxin or covishield- for more in this regard.

  • It should be our endeavour to take the vaccination whichever is available in our health centres to keep our family safe. At present, we do have three brands such as Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V having their efficacy rate 81 %, 81.3 % and 91.6 respectively.
    Before taking the final conclusion regarding the best available vaccination among the three, we should see their different features as indicated below-
    Covaxin COVID - 19 has been developed by Bharat Biotech with the advantage that it would start working as soon as you get the first jab triggering the body's immune system. As a result, body is protected from the virus of corona. Though some minor side effects such as Fever, Nausea, Headache, Swelling at the regions of the injection may persist for 48 hours after the jab and would go its own after the period indicated above. This vaccination is the combination of several virus dead bodies.
    Covishield- It has been developed by the Serum Institute of India with its scientific name known as Astra Zeneca. It would stimulate the body's defence system to make the immunity strong because of of formation of multiple antibodies against any infection and virus if the body comes in contact with such a dangerous virus. The same is vaccinated at the upper arm of the body. The efficacy rate of the covishield is 81.3 as confirmed from the website of Serum Institute of India.
    Sputnik V Vaccine - It is a Russian based vaccine and is developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. This medicine works with a different mechanism starting enhancement of the protein in the body. On being attacked by the real COVID 19 virus, the vaccination would multiply antibodies against the virus and shield the same.
    If you waste your time in comparing the efficacies of these vaccinations, you are putting your self in risk and hence the prudent approach is to get vaccinated as soon as possible with anyone of the available vaccinations for being protected from the virus of corona.

  • India is a big country. There should be no such question arise regarding the selection of vaccines because often we hear that the stock of vaccines is over and the vaccine centre has been closed. In such a situation whatever vaccine is available near your health centre should get vaccinated. As far as I know, all vaccines are good and effective. There may be little bit different among them.
    1.Covaxin - It has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). It would be effective 80- 100%. You can take a second dose after one month.
    2. Covishield- It has been developed by the Serum Institute of India with its scientific name known as Astra Zeneca. It would affect on body 70-90%. For taking second dose you will have to wait for three months.
    3. Sputnik - It was developed by Dr Reddys Laboratories Ltd, which is located in Russia. Its efficacy rate is almost the same.
    So, without considering which vaccine is better you must get vaccinated whichever is available in near health centre as all vaccine will protect from coronavirus.

  • This is a question which is arising in the minds of people time to time as which vaccine they should go for. The answer is not a simple one that we can categorise them as per their merit. The reason is of course very simple that these vaccines all of them are still in the development phase and whatever data about their effectiveness is being gathered by the agencies, more clarity about them would be coming in picture. As on today based on the limited clinical data it is claimed that these vaccines are effective in the range 75 to 90% which means that even after taking them some of the people can again get the Covid infection as if vaccination was not helpful to them. A perfect vaccine takes a long time to become a 100% fool proof item because a lot of feedback data from its clinical use has to be generated before making any claim about its increased effectiveness. The dose of a vaccine is also a very big deciding factor of its effectiveness and a lot of research goes in it. The dose should not be too high to create problems and at the same time it should not be too low to have no effect on the human body. There are many scientific factors that go in the making and designing of a vaccine and a layman has little understanding of those technicalities.

    There is another factor that there are many big companies in the manufacturing of these vaccines and many of them are funded by the Govt also. Moreover, they have to pass through the stringent tests to be authenticated by the monitoring and regulatory agencies and it is unlikely that a vaccine would be released for mass consumption before those formalities are over. So, considering that aspect the vaccine coming to be used at the ground level is to be assumed as effective and serving its purpose. There are some fake and misleading information about the side effects and other effects of these vaccines and as they are not authenticated by the scientists and the research communities we should discard them and should not give cognisance to them.

    As on today, all the vaccines available in the country are being taken by the people without any bias and many times there will not be a choice to choose one among them. The basic purpose of a vaccine is to create antibodies in the body and that is the main thing that does the trick of defeating this virus. Now depending on the source from which the vaccine is derived and the mechanism adopted, it is possible to have different gaps between their first and second dose and depending on the quantity of vaccine material it may also be desired to have a booster dose after an year or so. These are all specialised processes attached to a particular vaccine and we should not compare them from that perspective. Only care one must take is adhere to a particular vaccine till the last prescribed dose. Let us go through some basic information about these vaccines to understand their modalities of working more clearly.

    Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine as it is made from the killed coronaviruses and is claimed to have minimal side effects. As per phase 3 trials its effectiveness is found around 81%. Bharat Biotech, an Indian company, which is having a 24-year experience in this field has made this vaccine using the sample of coronavirus isolated by India's National Institute of Virology. It is to be given in 2 doses separated by 4 weeks.

    Covishield vaccine is sourced from Oxford-AstraZeneca and is being manufactured in India by Serum Institute (SII). This vaccine is derived from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. When this vaccine dose is given to a person then the immune system starts making antibodies which protect the person from coronavirus. It is given in two doses separated by 4 to 12 weeks. Its effectiveness is 70% just after the first dose itself. After two doses the effectiveness increases to almost in the range 80-90%.

    The Sputnik vaccine is developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute. It delivers a small fragment of the coronavirus to the body and the body starts creating antibodies while reacting to it. Interesting thing about this vaccine is that its two doses which are given 21 days apart are slightly different and it is claimed that they might be more effective.

    One thing which is important to note is that many countries have approved these vaccines and they are being used there. Millions of these vaccines have been already used and millions are under production. By this time these are already confirmed for mass usage. India is developing some other vaccines also and they will also be in the market soon.

    Knowledge is power.

  • With the emergence of pandemic, getting the jabs is a must. As we all are aware of the current situation of vaccines being running out of stock, it is advisable to get vaccinated ASAP. There are three vaccines available in India - Covaxin, Covishield, and Sputnik. I have no idea about sputnik. Hence, my opinion is for either covaxin or covishield. But keep in mind that many foreign countries are allowing people who have got covishield. Anyway, both the vaccines are good and you can choose either of them.

  • COVID 19 has ruined the whole world and many people lost their lives. There is no time for the medical experts to understand the way of treating it or way of stopping it. But they have taken up the challenge and struggled a lot to decide on the treatment methodology and saved many lives.
    Many laboratories started their work to develop vaccines to stop the spread of the virus. Developing a vaccine is a long process and its effectiveness is to be proved by conducting various clinical trials in various levels and then only should be released for administering the same for the public.
    India is also there in the front runners for developing the vaccine and successfully developed two vaccines. Covishield and Covaxin. Covaxin is completely developed indigenously by a Hyderabad based company. Covishield is developed with the collaboration of Astro Zenica and oxford university. These are the two vaccines that are released in our country. The third one is Sputnik developed by Russia and manufacturing rights were taken by a Hyderabad based company. Recently one more is added and that is Moderna Inc's vaccine.
    Generally, no vaccine is 100% foolproof. But the effectiveness will be known after completing all the clinical tests. The usage of sputnik and Moderna is not very much in number and we can't compare the small quantities with the other two which are used widely in the country. The various factors of Covaxin and Covishield are compared below.
    1. Type of Vaccine:
    Covaxin is developed with Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell-derived technology. This vaccine will contain inactivated viruses. They can't infect the person but still can make the system ready to develop antibodies.
    Covishield has been developed by using the viral vector platform. A virus that causes cold is used for making this vaccine. This cold vaccine can't infect the person but can prepare the system to face the challenge by developing antibodies.
    2, Doses:
    As of date, both are two doses vaccines only. The requirement of the third dose to face the delta variant is being studied. Covaxin second dose is to be taken after 28 days of the first dose whereas Covishield second dose is to be taken after 84 days of the first dose.
    3. Efficacy:
    Both the vaccines are having the same level of efficacy and that is above satisfactory.
    The effectiveness of the Covishield vaccine is about 90% as per the global reports. According to interim 3rd phase trial results, the effectiveness of Covaxin is about 81%.
    4. Side effects:
    There are no major complaints in this area. Some may get some headaches, body pains or fever. Only Paracetamol is to be used and no other medicine. In 24 to 48 hours the problems will reduce.
    Based on the reports from the public as well as from the scientists and other testing laboratories Covishield can be up to 90% effective and Covaxin can be up to78-81% effective.

    drrao
    always confident


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