COVID-19 Vaccination Latest News: EFFECTIVENES ALERT! NEW WAY of predicting EFFICACY

COVID-19 Vaccination Latest News: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Wednesday stated that India has crossed a significant landmark in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic after the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country neared 18.7 crores. The COVID-19 vaccination in the country is going on, however, there is a question that time and again bothers the people- how effective is the vaccine. Now, scientists have found a new way of predicting the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine. 

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Australian mathematicians, clinicians and scientists have analysed and published in in the journal Nature Medicine that the early immune response in a person who has been vaccinated for COVID-19 can predict the level of protection they will have against the virus over time as per an ANI report. 

The researchers from the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University of Sydney have identified an 'immune correlate' of vaccine protection. This also has the potential to dramatically cut the development time for new vaccines by measuring antibody levels as a 'proxy' for immune protection from COVID-19. Dr. Deborah Cromer from the Kirby Institute said, "Neutralising antibodies are tiny Y-shaped proteins produced by our body in response to infection or vaccination. They bind to the virus, reducing its ability to infect." Dr. Cromer added that their work is the strongest evidence to show that specific antibody levels translate to high levels of protection from disease. 

Notably, these researchers analysed the data from seven COVId-19 vaccines in order to examine how the response measured soon after vaccination correlated with protection. Following this, they used statistical analysis to define the specific relationship between immune response as well as protection. Their analysis was remarkably accurate and was able to predict the efficacy of a new vaccine. It can be said that this new discovery has the potential to change the way COVID-19 vaccine trails are being conducted in future. 

In COVID-19 vaccination related news in India, the country had started its vaccination drive with Covaxin and Covishield on January 16, 2021. The second phase of COVID-19 vaccination to inoculate people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with comorbidities was started from March 1, 2021. The third phase began from April 1, 2021, where all above 45 years were included. In the next phase, that started from May 1, 2021, all adults above 18 years of age were included. Recently, Russia's Sputnik V is also available in India for vaccination.