Both Covaxin, Covishield Effective Among Indians; But More Antibodies After This Vaccine

Covishield and Covaxin could produce a high immune response in up to 95% of recipients and prevent serious disease in those infected after immunization, revealed by a ‘real-world’ study of vaccinated healthcare workers.

Immune Response After Second Does

If we compare both then the oxford vaccine Covishield could generate antibodies in more individuals compared to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

The finding was revealed by a pre-print of the first such Indian study, which is the most vaccine efficacy studies so far have been lab-based. 

The pan-India study conducted on 515 vaccinated healthcare workers from 13 states and 22 cities, where 425 with Covishield and 90 with Covaxin.

They found that the vaccines could generate an immune response in 95% of recipients 21-36 days after the second dose.

Although the vaccine could generate immunity after the second dose, which could take more than 3 months, work from home is ending for many firms like Apple and TCS.

Looks like a recipe for disaster as the Covid-19 third wave is about to show its intensity. 

More Antibodies With Covishield 

As per this study, two doses of Covishield vaccine produced more antibodies than Covaxin doses.

Although, there were relatively fewer instances of ‘breakthrough infections’ after the latter.

Currently, the study is being peer-reviewed and has been submitted to a journal and appears as a preprint in MedrXiv, an online repository.

Basically, it is amongst the few studies of the real-world effectiveness of vaccination in India.

While the debate on vaccine response continues, 10 Lakh Vaccine Doses Missing Per Day.

Covishield Against Covaxin 

The study shows that a single dose of Covishield elicited about 10 times the antibodies than Covaxin whereas a second dose narrowed the gap somewhat, with Covershield-triggered antibodies about six times that of Covexin-simulated ones.

While “Covishield showed a good seropositivity rate and a 4-fold rise in median antibody titre even after a single dose,”.

The study concludes that 97.8% of those who never had COVID and had two complete doses of Covishield had detectable levels of antibodies, or tested seropositive, compared to 79.3% with Covaxin. 

Here, it is noteworthy that of the 515, only 90 got Covaxin.

Currently, Covishield constitutes the overwhelming majority of vaccines administered in the country with nearly nine persons getting it for every one of Covaxin.

So far, the real-world efficacy data of Covaxin and India-centric data on Covishield isn’t public yet.

But, recent studies have shown that most vaccines have reduced response to some coronavirus variants such as B.1.617.2 or the Delta variant.

Breakthrough Infections

Testing positive for the coronavirus two weeks after the second dose(Breakthrough infections) were noted in 5.5% (22/399) cohorts in Covishield and 2.2% (2/93) of Covaxin recipients.

The greater number of infections after the second wave was probably due to the increased number of cases after April and the high exposure of the study participants — all doctors in COVID hospitals — to patients during the second wave, as informed by Dr A.K. Singh, of the GD Hospital and Diabetes Institute, Kolkata and among the authors of the paper.

Further, he said that the study will continue in the months ahead to evaluate if antibody levels declined.