ICMR letter stoked row as it wanted Covaxin out by August 15.
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) said in a statement on Saturday a letter earlier this week by its Director General Balram Bhargava was meant to “cut unnecessary red tape” and “speed up recruitment of participants”.
The letter signed by Dr. Bhargava on Thursday and sent to clinicians at 12 hospital sites selected to test a potential COVID-19 vaccine became controversial after it was seen as exhorting scientists to speed up the processes and enable the vaccine to be made available for “public health use by August 15”. This not only presumes that Covaxin, the candidate vaccine developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Ltd and set to enter clinical trials, will be successful but also that trials which ordinarily take several months can be compressed to a little over a month.
Government scientists and independent experts have said this is an impossibly short time-frame to test it in people.
No explanation on date
However, the ICMR’s letter of Saturday has still no explanation why August 15 was mentioned.
Also read: Potential COVID-19 vaccine