Myths vs. Facts on COVID 19 Vaccination
Decision of increasing COVISHIELD dose interval based on the fundamental scientific reason regarding behaviour of adenovector vaccines. Record of Minutes of meetings of COVID-19 Working Group and Standing Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of NTAGI clearly show that recommended 12-16 weeks dosing interval for COVISHIELD was unanimous with no dissent from any member
There have been some media reports regarding increase in the gap between two doses of COVISHIELD vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, suggesting dissent among the technical experts regarding the decision.
It may be noted that the decision of increasing the gap is based on the scientific reason regarding behaviour of adenovector vaccines and has been discussed thoroughly in meetings of COVID-19 Working Group and Standing Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of NTAGI with no dissent from any member.
The 22nd meeting of COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) was held on 10th May 2021. The COVID-19 Working Group has the following members:
| Dr. N K Arora | Executive Director, INCLEN |
| Dr. Rakesh Aggarwal | NTAGI Member, Director, JIPMER, Puducherry |
| Dr. Gagandeep Kang | NTAGI Member, Professor, CMC Vellore |
| Dr. Amulya Panda | NTAGI Member, Director, NII |
| Dr. J P Muliyil | NTAGI Member, Retd. Principal, CMC, Vellore |
| Dr. Navin Khanna | Group Leader, ICGEB |
| Dr. V G Somani | DCGI, CDSCO |
| Dr. Pradeep Haldar | Advisor, RCH, MoHFW |
This COVID-19 Working Group considered a proposal for a change in dose interval for COVISHIELD used under the National Vaccination Policy. It recommended that ‘based on the real-life evidences particularly from United Kingdom (UK), the COVID-19 Working Group agreed for increasing the dosing interval to 12-16 weeks between two doses of COVISHIELD Vaccine’.
This recommendation of COVID-19 Working Group was further taken up for discussion in the 31st meeting of Standing Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of NTAGI which was held on 13th May 2021 under the joint chairpersonship of Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Secretary, DHR & DG, ICMR.
Members of STSC are as follows:
| Dr. Renu Swarup | Secretary, Department of Biotechnology |
| Dr. Balram Bhargava | Secretary, Department of Health Research & DG- ICMR |
| Dr. J P Muliyil | Professor, CMC Vellore |
| Dr. Gagandeep Kang | Professor, CMC Vellore |
| Dr. Indrani Gupta | Professor, Institute for Economic Growth, Delhi |
| Dr. Rakesh Aggarwal | Director, JIPMER, Puducherry |
| Dr. Mathew Varghese | Head of the Dept, Orthopaedics, St. Stephan’s Hospital, New Delhi |
| Dr. Satinder Aneja | Professor, Sharda University, Noida |
| Dr. Neerja Bhatla | Professor, AIIMS, New Delhi |
| Dr. M D Gupte | Former Director, NIE, Chennai |
| Dr. Y K Gupta | Principal Adviser THSTI-DBT |
| Dr. Arun Aggarwal | Professor, PGIMER, Chandigarh |
| Dr. Lalit Dhar | Professor, Virology, AIIMS, New Delhi |
The STSC of NTAGI gave the following recommendation:- ‘as per the COVID-19 Working Group recommendation, a dosing interval of minimum three months between two doses of COVISHIELD vaccine was recommended.’
In both the meetings i.e. COVID-19 Working Group and STSC, no dissent was given by any of the three members who have been quoted in a news report by Reuters, namely, Dr. Mathew Varghese, Dr M. D. Gupte and Dr. J. P Muliyil. Further, it is on record that Dr. Mathew Varghese has denied talking to Reuters on the issue of his alleged dissent.
