Bharat Rakshak

SaraLax wrote:

sas wrote:What bothers me the most is, how these pvt hospitals are able to get vaccine supplies, when there is a shortage and why none of the govt primary health care centers are providing the inoculation for 18+.

There is nothing untoward happening here. Private Hospitals in Chennai & other cities who can afford to buy directly from the Vaccine Manufacturers are doing the vaccination for 18+ years age group. Big private Hospitals in TN like Apollo, MGM, Global, SIMS, Kauvery & likewise are purchasing directly from SII & BB at their highest quoted price and one dose of these vaccines costs upwards of INR 1250 at minimum. For a 7 million+ city - these big pvt hospitals are getting only a few thousands of Vaccine doses per week. No wonder it gets quickly taken up.

I am less than 45+ years age but i go for periodic check-up to a very good private but medium sized hospital (well known for their reasonable cost in doing critical surgeries in spine & brain & with a very high success rate). When i went in March 2021 - the head doctor asked me if i was willing to take Covid-19 vaccine during my check-up and i was surprised. I said that i am not in the 45+ age group. The Doctor replied that they are getting vaccines thrice per week (from TN Medical Supplies Corporation? or is it Chennai Corporation ?) and they are advertising in their locality & personally calling up their prior patients in that age group to come and take the Vaccine. But still they are seeing nearly 5 % wastage of the vaccines and hence the reason why he asked me. They got informal permission to provide the vaccine to people in leftover age group and reduce wastage as much as possible. In that period even educated people in Chennai were circumspect about taking these Vaccines. They gave me Covishield & charged INR 250 for the same. Given the opportunity - i opted to take it. But the hospital indicated that people like me will not get the Covid Vaccination Certificate inspite of having paid money to take the vaccination. Then i called them in 2nd week of April and they asked me to come on a different date to get my 2nd dose. I again paid INR 250 and took the 2nd dose. The hospital's Vaccine co-ordinator was lamenting that people are still not coming to take up their 2nd dose !!.

Since this is a pvt hospital which is not treating Covid-19 patients i felt it was more safer to not get infected with Covid-19 during the process of taking the Covid-19 vaccination itself and called up to check on their vaccination appointments (it was not showing in CoWin site). The Vaccine co-ordinator told me that hospital has not got any supply of vaccines for the last 3 weeks from the state body which used to distribute it previously . But they are now getting lots of calls & direct queries at the hospital as to whether they are doing vaccination because they are a private hospital & other private hospitals are also doing vaccination in all age groups. But the hospital is not big enough to buy the vaccines directly from SII or BB and suffer wastage. They are willing to vaccinate people if state govt provides them the vaccines. So they are asking people to call back in 2 weeks to get an update. There was a change in state government in the middle and things got into a state of stasis on the Covid-19 front. In last week of April or so, the Health Minister from then ADMK run govt was seeking the Election Commission's permission to allow the State Govt to make some critical decisions on the COVID-19 handling front alone but it seems they did not get a proper response. Now the current SG in TN has just started the process of tendering to acquire Vaccines for the 18-45 years group. There is Oxygen shortage too and the whole state is in a very strict lock down (basically damaging the lower middle class and poor people the most after having earlier indicated that they will not enforce strict lockdowns). This lack of vaccines from state govt in TN for this 18 - 45 yrs group will continue until local vaccine manufacturers like SII, BB & Sputnik increase their production rate. Only 45+ years folks are still being provided vaccines in numerous pvt hospitals and state's hospitals & UHPCs. Till then folks in TN have to be patient, keep themselves safe from COVID-19 infection and wait their time out.

An innovation reported two years ago by researchers at IIT-Hyderabad in the formulation of oral tablets used in the treatment of kala-azar or black fever has come to the aid of black fungus patients.

In 2019, researchers from IIT- H's Creative and Advanced Research Based on Nanomaterials (CARBON) lab reported using gelatin nanofibers to manufacture Amphotericin B in a sustained-release tablet form.

No pharmaceutical company in the country has advanced innovation in the last two years by conducting clinical trials, obtaining necessary regulatory approvals, and manufacturing tablets.

Amphotericin B has been a lifeline for thousands of patients around the world suffering from black fever or fungal infections, including the dreaded black fungus.

Kala Azar is caused by the parasite Leishmania donovani. Fever, an enlarged spleen and liver, weight loss, discolouration of the skin on the hands and feet (hence the name), and anaemia are some of the symptoms. The disease is spread by sand flies. Spraying insecticides to prevent the flies from reproducing is one of the activities carried out as part of the national kala-azar elimination programme.

Amphotericin-B is currently manufactured in the form of an injection by a few pharmaceutical companies, and its use in the treatment of black fungus costs lakhs of rupees -- a 50 mg vial costs close to Rs 4,000, and up to 60-100 vials are required for one patient.

“Amphotericin B tablets would be significantly less expensive than injections, costing around Rs 200 per tablet of 60 mg dose,” said Dr Chandra Shekhar Sharma, Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering department at IIT-Hyderabad.

Dr Sharma further said that the innovation has yet to be patented, allowing it to remain open to the public and used for good.

Manufacturing the drug in tablet form would also make it easier to scale up production to meet the high demand.

India crosses a major landmark with more than 21 Cr Cumulative Vaccination Coverage

More than 1.82 Cr beneficiaries of age group 18-44 Vaccinated so far

More than 28 lakh Vaccine Doses administered today till 7 pm

India has crossed a significant landmark in its fight against COVID19 pandemic today.

The country has administered more than 21 Cr vaccine doses (21,18,39,768) as per the 7 pm provisional report today.

The total of 21,18,39,768 include 98,61,648 Healthcare Workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 67,71,436 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 1,55,53,395 Frontline Workers (FLWs) (1st dose), 84,87,493 FLWs (2nd dose), 1,82,25,509 for 18-44 years of age group (1st dose) and 9,373 for 18-44 years of age group (2nd dose). 6,53,51,847 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (1st Dose), 1,05,17,121 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (2nd dose), 5,84,18,226 for above 60 years (1st Dose) and 1,86,43,720 for above 60 years (2nd Dose).

As on Day-134 of the vaccination drive (29th May, 2021), total 28,09,436 vaccine doses were given. 25,11,052 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 2,98,384 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report till 7 P.M.

"The Ministry of Health would announce the new coronavirus variant on the global genome map," said Long

Atmavik wrote:One of my LinkedIn contacts shared that Amazon had a vaccination drive for their employees in Bengaluru. Small number but it all adds up

chanakyaa wrote:Yesterday, there was a news reported in Vietnam that detected a coronavirus hybrid variant that is a combination of the UK and Indian mutants. The news was promptly disseminated by the international fake news cabal. I was bit irritated by the reference as Indian mutant (B.1.617), so I decided to pull english news from Vietnamese sources. Found two english medium sites, with no reference to genome or mutation code, except following reference.

saip wrote:My Sis and BiL were vaccinated two months back in India with AZ. On May 14 they came to NY. Were tested negative before they could board. They went for a test on 17, he a rapid test (negative) but she RT-PCR. Two days later she was told she is positive and should quarantine for a week even though they had no symptoms. NY state is doing a good job following up phone calls everyday. Even offered to get groceries and other things if they need. Two of them live in a condo and so no problem with quarantine. On 27 they went for a re test - both got RT-PCR. And now she tested positive and he tested negative. Neither of them have any symptoms. Health dept advised them to continue the quarantine till Jun 6.
Is it possible that the AZ vaccine is giving these false +ve results? Their Primary care physician seem to think so. They are NOT worried as they have absolutely no symptoms and staying put in the apartment.

Update on COVID Vaccine Allocation

Nearly 12 Crore Doses will be available for National COVID Vaccination for month of June 2021

7,94,05,200 doses were available for National COVID Vaccination Programme in May 2021

Advance visibility of Vaccines for the entire month of June 2021 provided to States/UTs by Union Health Ministry

Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. The 'Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy' is being implemented from 1st May 2021 wherein 50% of the available doses are earmarked for supply to States/UTs, as free of cost supply from Govt of India channel, while the remaining 50% is available for direct procurement from the vaccine manufacturers by States/UTs and private hospitals.

The allocation of Govt. of India supplies to States/UTs is decided on the consumption pattern, population and vaccine wastage. Visibility for availability of vaccines for the entire month of June 2021 has been provided well in advance to States/UTs by Union Government as communicated to States and UTs vide letters of Union Health Ministry dated 17th May 2021, 27th May 2021 and 29th May 2021.

For the month of June 2021, 6.09 crore(6,09,60,000) doses of COVID vaccines will be supplied to the States and UTs for vaccination of priority group of Health Care Workers (HCWs), Front-Line Workers (FLWs) and person aged 45 years + and above as free supply from Government of India. In addition, more than 5.86 crore (5,86,10,000) doses will be available for direct procurement by the state/UTs and Private Hospitals.Therefore, in June 2021 close to 12 crore (11,95,70,000) doses will be available for the national COVID vaccination programme.

At a time when the people across the country are waiting for the first vaccine shot, some people with access to the system are taking another jab of covaxin. The impact of Covaxin after Covidshield is not known yet and there have been no clinical trials for the same.

The doctors said that this should be declared a crime because unless everyone is safe, no one is safe. Dr Prsanna of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Association (PHANA) said that the government must restrict the photo id allowed for vaccination purposes because most of the people have multiple id cards, they are using different IDs to get what is being called ‘booster dose’.

India’s vaccination drive is being slowed down especially by two kinds of people – greedy people in cities, where the person with access to the system is getting multiple doses and fooling the government (also because it is free, they do not see a problem in getting multiple doses without spending a single penny); and the second is the rumour mongers whose impact can be seen in villages.

krisna wrote:

source from twitter @bennedose
https://twitter.com/bennedose/status/13 ... 43235?s=09

In the video, a scientist can be seen holding a bat with bare hands.

Some team members can be seen collecting potentially highly infectious faeces of bats while wearing short sleeves, with no noticeable personal protective equipment (PPE) other than gloves.

The final phase 3 analysis of Covaxin, the Covid-19 jab developed by Bharat Biotech, has shown the efficacy of 78 per cent in preventing symptomatic coronavirus caused disease, a report said.

Officials familiar with the development said that the Hyderabad-based vaccine maker is likely to announce the results in June.

As per previous reports, while the first interim efficacy analysis had shown the efficacy of nearly 81 per cent, the second interim analysis results showed it to be about 78 per cent.

This analysis comes at a time when Bharat Biotech has applied for emergency use listing (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the company is expecting a nod from the UN health agency by July-September.

The researchers have analysed Covaxin’s efficacy at several, pre-set interval—known as endpoints.

It showed that the efficacy of the vaccine against the coronavirus caused disease was 100 per cent and a reduction of hospitalization numbers was also noted.

Suraj wrote:Does anyone have data from Cowin for Sunday upto 7 or 8pm ? The PIB and MOHFW sites do not update on Sunday so I have no insight on data until Monday.

Sicanta wrote:

Suraj wrote:Does anyone have data from Cowin for Sunday upto 7 or 8pm ? The PIB and MOHFW sites do not update on Sunday so I have no insight on data until Monday.

https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in/

As on Day-134 of the vaccination drive (29th May, 2021), total 28,09,436 vaccine doses were given. 25,11,052 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 2,98,384 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report till 7 P.M. Final reports would be completed for the day by late tonight.

Findings This prespecified interim analysis of a randomized clinical trial included 40 382 participants who received at least 1 dose of a 2-dose inactivated vaccine series developed from either SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 (5 µg/dose) or HB02 (4 µg/dose) strains or an aluminum hydroxide–only control, with a primary end point of the incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 at least 14 days after the second injection. The efficacy for the 2 vaccines, compared with an aluminum hydroxide–only control, was 72.8% in the WIV04 group and 78.1% in the HB02 group; both comparisons were statistically significant.

An increasing concern is whether the investigational vaccines can protect against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants,17-21 particularly the variants first detected in the UK (B.1.1.7 lineage [501Y.V1]), South Africa (B.1.351 lineage [501Y.V2]), and Brazil (P.1 lineage [501Y.V3]), with variations in the S gene. A recent study found no protection of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against the B.1.351 variant.22 The efficacy of the 2 inactivated vaccines against these emerging variants could not be tested given that the variants were not common in the Middle Eastern countries at the time of the trial. A 2021 study assessed the neutralizing activity of serum samples from participants who received 2 doses of the HB02 vaccine against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.23 Results of the study found similar or slightly higher neutralizing capacity of the HB02 vaccinee serum samples against the D614G and B.1.1.7 variants compared with wild-type pseudovirus, but the B.1.351 variant showed more resistance to the neutralization of vaccinee serum (by a factor of 2.5) than the wild-type virus. In the same study, another inactivated vaccine, the CoronaVac, was also tested, and similar results were found.23 More studies are needed to investigate the neutralizing capacity as well as the efficacy of the inactivated vaccines against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants with increased transmission.

krisna wrote:people who take covid vaccination are definitely safer from those without any vaccination. Very small % of people with vaccination get the disease even after 1 dose . They are relatively mild. No serious disease.

Virtually all serious disease I see are of unvaccinated folks.

Vaccination is the key to keep the disease low.

LONDON: Amid calls for a fresh probe into the origins of Covid-19, an explosive new study has found that Chinese scientists created the virus in a lab in Wuhan, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus has no "credible natural ancestor" and was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a 'Gain of Function' project in a Wuhan lab, the Daily Mail reported on Sunday, citing a new research paper by British professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sorensen.

The new research claims that scientists took a natural coronavirus "backbone" found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new "spike", turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible Covid-19.

The paper also quotes that researchers found "unique fingerprints" in Covid-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory.

Authors Dalgleish and Sorensen wrote in their paper that they had prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China' for a year, but were ignored by academics and major journals, reported DailyMail.com.

The study alleged "deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data" at Chinese labs and notes the silencing and disappearance of scientists in China who spoke out about the activities.

The research, has been obtained by DailyMail.com, is expected to intensify the ongoing debate on China's role in creating the virus that has claimed thousands of lives.

In the 22-page paper which is set to be published in the scientific journal Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery, Dalgleish and Sorensen pieced together how Chinese scientists, some working with American universities, allegedly built the tools to create the coronavirus.

Incidentally, 'Gain of Function' projects, which involves tweaking natural viruses to make them more infectious, had been outlawed by former US President Barack Obama.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Sorensen said that four amino acids on the spike have a positive charge, which causes the virus to tightly cling to the negatively charged parts of a human, becoming more infectious.

Because these positively charged amino acids also repeal each other, it was rare to find even three in a row in naturally occurring organisms, while four in a row is 'extremely unlikely, he said.

"The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row. The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it," Dalgleish told DailyMail.com.

"The implication of our historical reconstruction, we posit now beyond reasonable doubt, of the purposively manipulated chimeric virus SARS-CoV-2 makes it imperative to reconsider what types of Gain of Function experiments it is morally acceptable to undertake," they wrote.

In the paper, the scientists wrote that a natural virus pandemic would be expected to mutate gradually and become infectious but less pathogenic, which did not happen in the case of Covid-19.

Dalgleish and Sorensen claimed that after the pandemic began, Chinese scientists took samples of the COVID-19 virus and 'retro-engineered' it, making it appear as if it had evolved naturally.

"We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created. They've changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago," Dalgleish told DailyMail.com.

The scientists also highlighted that Chinese scientists who wished to share their knowledge have not been able to do so or have disappeared.

Sorensen said that he believes the virus escaped from lower security areas of the institute, where he believes Gain of Function research was performed, reported DailyMail.com.

"We have seen lab leaks and we know it's happening. We also know from the reports we've seen, that coronavirus is worked on in Biosafety Level 2 or 3 labs. If they do Gain of Function in such labs, what do you expect?" he said.

In February 2020, Botao Xiao, a molecular biomechanics researcher at South China University of Technology, published a paper claiming "the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan," highlighting safety issues at the institute. However, he withdrew the paper weeks later after Chinese authorities denied any accidents at the lab.

Dalgleish further told DailyMail.com that he believed China's resistance to the theory that COVID-19 is a man-made, escaped virus comes from scientists fearful that the revelation would shut down their field.

"This looks like a weak defence to protect the discipline so that this type of genetic engineering will not be interfered with. I make no bones about it. The Gain of Function engineering should have been banned ages ago," he said.

Despite former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove saying publicly that the scientists' theory should be investigated, they said their research was dismissed by major scientific journals that were adamant that the virus jumped naturally from bats, reported DailyMail.com.

However, leading academics, politicians and the media have now begun to contemplate the possibility that Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China - where experiments included manipulating viruses to increase their infectiousness in order to study their potential effects on humans.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden on May 26 said he has asked the US intelligence community to "redouble their efforts" to come to a conclusion on the origins of Covid-19 and report back to him within 90 days.

China state media rejected the idea that Covid-19 had originated there and said that it is "a conspiracy created by US intelligence agencies"

A few days ago, an article was published in the Wall Street Journal which revealed that three researchers at Wuhan Institute fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized. The report was based on previously undisclosed US intelligence. The researchers were admitted into the hospital a month before China reported the first case of Covid-19.

The revelation has sparked debate and raised questions about whether China knew of the deadly virus way before it apprised the world.

Recently, former New York Times science journalist Nicholas Wade published an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists where he argues that evidence is stronger than the virus leaked from a lab than that it occurred naturally.

In an elaborate report, Wade said that much of the work of Chinese virologists on gain-of-function in coronaviruses was performed at the BSL2 safety level lab, which requires taking fairly minimal safety precautions. The pandemic broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019."For the lab escape scenario, a Wuhan origin for the virus is a no-brainer.

Before that, an Australian daily revealed that Chinese scientists were thinking about bioweapons, visualising a World War-III scenario. The Weekend Australian newspaper cited a Chinese government document that discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronavirus.

DailyMail.com further reported that China had installed the first of a planned five to seven Biolabs in Wuhan in 2017 for the purpose of studying the most high-risk pathogens, including the Ebola and the SARS viruses.Why the heck would anyone need so many biolabs, that too at a single place?

In March, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus also called for further studies after the release of an inconclusive report on an international team's field visit to Wuhan to research the origins of Covid-19, citing difficulties accessing raw data.