New Delhi: Noted clinical scientist Gagandeep Kang has allayed apprehension of people over safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. He said that COVID-19 vaccines are being developed in a short period of time. However, Gagandeep Kang asserted that there has been absolutely no compromise in their clinical testing.
Kang is associated with the ‘Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness’. It is a global consortium involved in facilitating vaccine candidates for the novel coronavirus. He also informed that there should be equitable COVID-19 vaccine access globally and domestically.
Noted scientist Kang is known for her inter-disciplinary research on transmission, development and prevention of infections. She is also the first Indian woman to be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in London.
“Though vaccines for the coronavirus are being developed in a ‘very short period of time’, all clinical phases of testing are being done. “What has changed is the approach to the testing where all steps that used to happen between phases of clinical trials have been cut out. This means regulators are working much longer and harder than they ever have before,” Kang said.
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“Everybody is talking about things being done very fast. But I think it is very important to know what steps we are cutting out. Quite frankly, in all of the testing of vaccines that is being done, there is no aspect of testing that is being removed from the development pathway,” Kang further said.
“I think it is very important to understand that there has been absolutely no compromise in clinical testing of COVID-19 vaccines. The only thing that we do not have from these trials is the duration of safety follow-up. Generally, we follow up on trials for six months or one year,” added the scientist.
Kang was the executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI). However, she resigned in July. She said that another thing that is different in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. The clinical trials have been made very large to get results faster.
To a question on availability of cold chain capacity to store vaccines, she said that equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines should be ensured.
The case should not be that those who live in big cities, where there is better cold chain capacity, get vaccinated while those in rural areas or small towns do not get it because of lack of storage facilities, Kang informed.
“My worry with all of it is the question of equity, will we end up with a system where we have freezers in big cities and some classes of people can get vaccines, whereas in rural areas or small towns there is no access to these vaccines as cold chain capacity does not exist,” she said.
