Agencies
New Delhi, December 15:
Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul on Tuesday said that there is a chance of our vaccines becoming ineffective in emerging situations.
“There is the potential scenario that our vaccines may become ineffective in emerging situations,” he said. Paul added that there is a need to create vaccines, using the same platform, to “target the variant of the day”. “In the wake of the last three weeks of living with Omicron, we have seen how such doubts have come up. Some of them may be genuine. We still do not have the final picture,” he said.
“And therefore, there is need for us that we have to be sure about having vaccine platforms that are adaptable quickly. This possibility that we need to tweak for us to remain in the game, so to say, with changing nature of the variants remains valid,” Dr Paul, also a Niti Aayog member, said.
“A much more concerted approach to drug development is required,” Paul said.
Paul said that the priority right now is to make sure that there is universal vaccine coverage and that no one is left behind. He also stressed the need for investments in science to tackle the pandemic.
Paul was speaking at the CII Partnership summit.
“Drug development will not go out of fashion for the next viral epidemic/pandemic that we might face, and the anti-microbial resistance challenge is crying for drug solutions. Lastly, it is a science of the highest quality that we need to invest in to tackle deep challenges. Our national investment in science is all public money,” he said.
“Pandemic is not over, we will continue to deal with uncertainty, even though we hope that we are possibly moving in the direction of endemicity, hopefully of a mild disease, that we can tackle,” he said.
