Covishield, the Covid vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, has never been out of headlines. The biggest bone of contention has been the changing gap between two vaccine doses. What started with 4 weeks, now stands at 18 weeks. The govt says, while vaccination schedules are always decided by scientific evidence, operational reasons are also factored in while deciding the immunisation timetable, and hence there's no need to change the gap.
With the Delta variant now causing many infections in India, there is a renewed chorus to revise the vaccine gap to a shorter one and focus on achieving full immunisation coverage for a smaller proportion of the population than a single dose for a larger section.
On today's episode of News Guru, Dr Shahid Jameel, Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, and Dr Arvinder Soin, Chairman, Medanta Liver Transplant Institute and National Lead Investigator, Indian RCT on Tocilizumab in Covid help us understand vaccine gaps and what should be the ideal interval between two doses of Covishield?