Good news guyz. Anyone having knowledge of this field can shed some light if this ambitious date of 15 august set by ICMR is possible ?
Aug15 is too ambitious. Even fast tracked clinical trials will take more time.
I haven't yet studied the particular vaccines being developed in India. But, there are a few constraints here:
1) Most of the vaccines developed for the family of coronoviruses (not just SARS-CoV2 which is causing COVID-19), when administered to humans, have resulted in a major adverse effect called- cytokine storm. In this, the body produces too many cytokines.. so much so that it blocks our respiratory system eventually leading to death. Something like dying of a severe asthma attack. If the vaccine is not yet trialed for safety in humans, then the job is not even half done yet.
2) Scale-up capacity: I don't work with vaccines, but I am not sure how long it will take to scale-up the manufacturing to meet the national, and eventually global, requirements. Hyderabad is the vaccine manufacturing hub of the world, so I hope we have the desired production capacity.
3) Booster doses: A single shot of vaccine may not also result in desired immunity. Like Hepatitis B shots are given over several months. So, if the vaccine is such that it needs multiple booster doses, it may not immediately give the immunity.