{"id":33001,"date":"2020-09-13T21:03:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T15:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=33001"},"modified":"2020-09-13T21:03:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T15:33:54","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-possible-by-2021-first-quarter-says-harsh-vardhan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=33001","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 vaccine possible by 2021 first quarter, says Harsh Vardhan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Will be happy to take the first dose of the vaccine, the health minister said as he was interacting through Sunday Samvaad, his new social media interaction programme.<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/m.hindustantimes.com\/rf\/image_size_444x250\/HT\/p2\/2020\/09\/13\/Pictures\/harsh-vardhan-releases-a-compendium-in-delhi_3524fa3a-f5c1-11ea-b774-6298d87e9c8d.jpg\" alt=\"covid 19 vaccine latest news,covid 19 vaccine latest updates,covid 19 vaccine india launch date\" title=\"Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said no date for Covid-19 vaccine has been decided yet\"\/><figcaption>Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said no date for Covid-19 vaccine has been decided yet (PTI)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said no date for launching the Covid-19 vaccine has been fixed yet. \u201cIt may be ready by the first quarter of next year,\u201d the minister said as he addressed the first episode of his Sunday Samvaad \u2014 a social media interaction programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His comments come a day after pharma giant Astrazeneca announced the resumption of its Covid-19 vaccine trial after it got a go-ahead from British regulators. Its India partner Serum Institute of India has paused the trials after it was issued a show-cause notice by the Drug Controller of India, following the red flags raised in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Grateful to thousands of you who wrote to me for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SundaySamvaad?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SundaySamvaad<\/a> !<br><br>Great to have started a 2-way communication with social media friends. Learning a lot from the conversations. <br><br>Hope we can keep up &amp; further strengthen the dialogue\ud83d\udc4d<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/su977Pnzxk\">https:\/\/t.co\/su977Pnzxk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drharshvardhan\/status\/1305067117172072449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 13, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The minister assured the government is taking full precautions in conducting the human trials of the vaccine. \u201cIssues like vaccine security, cost, equity, cold-chain requirements, production timelines, etc., are also being discussed intensely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The vaccine, once ready, will be made available to those who need it the most. But the minister said he will be happy to receive the first dose of the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his one-hour interaction, the minister discussed several issues related to Covid-19 as he replied to several questions posed by social media users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>On which trial is most promising:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSeveral vaccine trials are going on in India. At present, we can\u2019t predict which one will emerge as the most effective. But by the first quarter of 2021, we will definitely know the results,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>On availability:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>A vaccine expert group has been set up, which is overseeing the entire process. While the trial results get assessed, the manufacturers will be advised to begin mass-production so that no time is wasted, the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>On first dose:<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0\u201cWork has already started on prioritising vulnerable groups who will be administered the vaccine first. But if I need to take the vaccine to test the efficacy of it, I will happily take the first dose,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>On Covid-19 vaccine price:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is premature to comment on the price of the vaccine which is still under trial. But the government of India will assure that the vaccine will be made available to those who need it the most, irrespective of their paying capacity,\u201d Harsh Vardhan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>On emergency authorisation of Covid-19 vaccine:<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe government is thinking about this. If there is consensus, we may grant emergency authorisation of the vaccine for senior citizens, frontline workers. Normally, the third trial takes about six to nine months. But if the government decides, this period can be cut short by giving an emergency authorisation. Any emergency authorisation is always done by adopting reinforced safeguard so that people don\u2019t worry about the safety. A high-level group has been formed to monitor the pace of the vaccine development under the direct guidance of PM Modi. There will be no shortcut on safety. Emergency authorisation will be given only if it meets the standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>On what could have been done better:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have put in our heart and soul. We have done our best. Now as I look back and think of the events that unfolded after I held the fist meeting on Covid-19 on January 8, it is difficult for me to think what could have been done better,\u201d Vardhan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><em>With inputs from the <a href=\"https:\/\/m.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/covid-19-vaccine-possible-by-2021-first-quarter-says-harsh-vardhan\/story-jxZjWleOO5xiBwCezeahrN.html\">Hindustan Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will be happy to take the first dose of the vaccine, the health minister said as he was interacting through Sunday Samvaad, his new social media interaction programme. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said no date for launching the Covid-19 vaccine has been fixed yet. \u201cIt may be ready by the first quarter of next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}