No Covid vaccine for people below 18 years, Center’s orders

Previously, the government of India, and the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), had approved the administration of the Bharat Biotech‘s Covid vaccine to people above 12 years of age. But now, the vaccine is to be administered to people only above 18 years of age.

Since this vaccine has currently been approved for only emergency purposes, the office of the additional secretary at the union health ministry has now released a letter, stating that the vaccine is not particularly safe for those below the age of 18.

The DGCI had previously approved the administration of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for EUA, along with its administration to everyone above the age of 12, and an official document with this permission had also been released. This document clearly stated that the vaccine is safe to use for everyone above the age of 12, when taken in doses, with a gap of 1 to 28 days. At the same time, another vaccine, to be distributed by the Serum Institute of India (SII), was given permission to be administered to only those above the age of 18.

The DGCI has reportedly taken the decision to not administer the Covaxin to those below 18 years of age since certain aspects of the vaccine were flagged. Covaxin has been a controversial vaccine since the very beginning, as the results of its Phase 3 trials have not been released to the public. Several people have even complained that several protocols involving human trials were in violation for this vaccine.

Several people from Bhopal, who were part of the vaccine’s human trials, and were also victims of the 1984 gas tragedy, have reported that they suffered severe side effects from the vaccine, and that no one bothered to check up on them after the vaccine was administered to them. A 45 year old man from Bhopal had died just 9 days after he was given the vaccine, but it was later reported that he did not die because of the vaccine.