Covishield vaccine safety review: Indian medical experts support the request

London: After a renowned British Indian cardiologist called for a full safety review of Oxford/AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, administered in India as Covishield, several Indian medical experts supported the request.

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a National Health Service (NHS) trained medic, is campaigning for the suspension of Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine. Last year, he published research that claimed that the harms of the vaccine outweigh the benefits for a majority of the population. He has taken two doses of the vaccine.

The expert is in India this week to deliver a series of lectures on Covid vaccines and make an "evidence-based case" for their suspension.

He noted that the use of AstraZeneca COVID vaccine was suspended in many European nations in early 2021 itself due to serious side effects. "It seems odd that India didn't halt its use." He added that the rate of reports of side effects that were beyond mild was unprecedented before its use in the UK was phased out in favour of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine at 800,000 reports after 9.7 million doses.

"According to pharmacovigilance data, the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine had a worse safety profile for serious adverse effects in comparison to Pfizer's mRNA vaccine for heart attack, stroke, and death in both younger and older adults," said the health professional.

Dr Amitav Banerjee, Epidemiologist and Professor and Head at DY Patil Medical College in Pune, supported Dr Malhotra and said: "Besides anecdotal reports of sudden deaths in the world, population-level data from many countries show high all-cause mortality following COVID-19 vaccination drives. We should pause at these red signals before rushing ahead heedlessly."

He said Covishield carries double the risk.

"The commonly used vaccine in India, Covishield, carries a double whammy of risk. While its use was discouraged in most European countries due to serious side effects like blood clots, it also carries the risk of myocarditis. There is accumulating evidence that this heart condition is associated with the mRNA vaccines. Many would perhaps not know that Covishield carries a DNA gene on an adenovirus which after injection gets converted into mRNA in the body," he added.

Dr Banerjee further said India should immediately halt COVID-19 vaccination given the present epidemiology of COVID-19 in our country, and the poor mechanism for identifying adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). He also recommended researchers without conflicts of interest should be resolving these issues.

Dr Sanjay K Rai, Professor, at the Centre for Community Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, also called for reconsidering universal vaccination because the majority of the Indian population has already been exposed to the virus. "Global evidence has demonstrated that natural infection provides better and longer duration of protection than any vaccine alone. In the current scenario, there is no requirement for universal vaccination against COVID-19. This may cause more harm than benefits."