As Anil Vij Who Took Vaccine Is Hospitalized With COVID-19, Here's What Could Have Gone Wrong

He was the most high-profile recipient of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate co-developed by domestic drug maker Bharat Biotech and ICMR but after Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tested positive for the infection, many have been raising questions about the efficiency of it.

While the condition of Vij, who is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon has improved and is said to be stable, him testing positive for COVID-19 weeks after he became the first recipient of COVIXIN in Haryana has met with skepticism, including by some in the medical field and have given anti-vaxxers enough fodder to spread unfounded theories about the efficiency of vaccines.

BCCL

Though what exactly went wrong with Vij is yet to be identified, many in the medical profession have said that the 67-year-old might not have been administered the vaccine in the first place.

Yes, there are photos and videos of him being given the jab, by a doctor, but since it was a double-blind placebo-controlled trial, there is a possibility that Vij was administered a placebo and not a shot of Covaxin.

ANI

In double-blind placebo trials, some of the volunteers who sign up are given a placebo vaccine, without them being aware of it. This is done to make sure that the reaction triggered on the body was from the vaccine and not from something else.

Yazhini PM, a medical practitioner wrote on Twitter "1. The participants of the trial are randomly assigned with either the vaccine or a placebo. So we don't know what the minister was assigned. 2. In the 2 weeks following the trial there could have been numerous circumstances where he could have contracted the infection."

1. The participants of the trial are randomly assigned with either the vaccine or a placebo. So we don't know what the minister was assigned.

2. In the 2 weeks following the trial there could have been numerous circumstances where he could have contracted the infection. https://t.co/b7t8xH1nwD

¡ª Yazhini PM (@yazhini_pm) December 17, 2020

"Attributing the illness to the trial would only strengthen the anti-vaxers propaganda and medical fraternity should be very careful while making such statements," she said in another Tweet.

Attributing the illness to the trial would only strengthen the anti-vaxers propaganda and medical fraternity should be very careful while making such statements.

¡ª Yazhini PM (@yazhini_pm) December 17, 2020

Another possibility, which even the Union health ministry has suggested is that Vij had taken only ¡°one dose¡± of the vaccine candidate. COVAXIN, like other vaccine candidates in development against SARS-COV2, is a two-dose vaccine. ¡°Antibodies against the infection build up in a human being only after a specific number of days pass after the second dose of the vaccine is taken,¡± the ministry had said in a statement.

COVAXIN?? trials are based on a 2-dose schedule, given 28 days apart. The vaccine efficacy will be determined 2 weeks after the 2nd dose. pic.twitter.com/ZKmGuKbBMf

¡ª BharatBiotech (@BharatBiotech) December 5, 2020

The Hyderabad-based drug maker had also clarified the same and said that the vaccine's efficacy will be determined only two weeks after the 2nd dose is administered.