As India continues to receive Covishield and Covaxin jabs, a verbal battle ensued on Twitter after Bharat Biotech SARS-CoV-2 Project Lead, Raches Ella raised doubts about the findings of a comparative study conducted among 515 health workers to ascertain the response generated by Covaxin and Covishield.
Of the 515 healthcare workers that participated in the survey, 425 received Covishield, while 90 took Covaxin, the jab produced by Bharat Biotech.
The study results published on the preprint server MedRxiv concluded that individuals that received the Covishield jab had a higher seropositivity rate accompanied by a higher average rise in anti-spike antibody or ASA as compared to Covaxin.
Ella sent out a series of tweets on Monday questioning the findings of the study while even tagging the lead researcher of the study in question, endocrinologist Awadhesh Kumar Singh.
Subsequently, Singh raised objections to Ella’s criticism while highlighting that Bharat Biotech hasn’t published phase 3 results for Covaxin yet. As is the nature of Twitter conversations, other netizens joined in on the clash with many demanding Bharat Biotech to publish phase 3 results for its vaccine.
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Ella cited two limitations of the study and later said, “The Lancet recommends authors refrain from actively seeking media attention for articles that are not peer-reviewed. If contacted by the press, authors clearly need to state these are preliminary findings that have not been peer-reviewed.”
@Teensthack @singhak_endo surprised that media/researchers are concluding based on non-peer-reviewed work. Limitation 1: Spike-based IgG's are not appropriate when evaluating Covaxin, which induces broad antibody responses to Spike, N, and M. Recommend live virus neutralization. https://t.co/kdCbfjwFbv
— Dr. Raches Ella (@RachesElla) June 7, 2021
Meanwhile, Singh responded by saying, “Brother, whole country is getting vaccinated even without a preprint phase 3 results – lest forget published one. We owe a sincere gratitude to Bharat Biotech but that does not mean one should raise finger on others effort. Of course, we will produce published results finally!”
Following a back and forth, Ella finally said that he was “not raising fingers, merely citing limitations that have a bearing on the study outcome. Salute your efforts as well. Phase 3 will be out very soon.”
Calls for Bharat Biotech to publish phase 3 trial results are growing larger by the day, especially since it’s being administered across the country. While preliminary results of Covaxin are encouraging, publishing phase 3 trial results will no doubt add to its credibility among the population.
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