The forces inimical to the Government efforts to fight the Covid pandemic are not relenting on their well organised anti-vaccination campaign yet again. Amidst an extensive and expansive inoculation drive, a latest attempt can be seen when a video went viral vaccination suggesting vaccinated people being “more likely” to infect others, experts have rejected the claims that Covid-19 vaccines are causing new variants of the virus.
Reports have also been circulated online saying that vaccinated people are “more likely” to infect others with “super-strains” of the coronavirus and epidemiologists know but are “silent” about the phenomenon, known as “Antibody-Dependent Enhancement” (ADE).
Alarmed over such a diversive campaign, Dr Mohammed Sultan Khuroo, former Director SKIMS and J&K’s Covid Advisory Committee Chairman has to come out with clarification terming the campaign as mischievous expressing his remarks that he was personally distressed to see a news circulating in social media about the risks which COVID-19 vaccines can pose due to the possibility of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE).
Khuroo said that the news is a fake and based on no facts and he would urge all members of society active in the social media not to circulate this news and delete it from their posts.
According to Dr. Khuroo the ADE can occur when some component in the vaccine mounts an immune response in the host through non-neutralizing antibodies.
“This can also occur in some patients through natural infection. Once such antibodies are generated, these subvert the immune response and lead to enhanced viral replication by a mechanism depicted in the image,” he said.
People must understand that all vaccines are tested for ADE in animal models before human trials were done.
Experts said ‘Should an experimental vaccine raise non-neutralizing antibodies and ADE response in animals, the vaccine molecule is altered to remove specific antigen which mounts non-neutralizing antibodies and ADE response. Thus all vaccines are certified safe from ADE response prior to human trials.
Khuroo stressed that all Covid-19 vaccines have been tested in animal models for ADE and are safe from such a phenomenon.
Since there are no reports of ADE in humans after use of millions of doses till date, spreading such false information should be checked to the source and severe action taken. Many other medical experts are too of the opinion that the news item circulating in the social media is false, fake and not based on scientific facts. India has already suffered a lot in its fight against the Covid when the detractors for cheap political gains created a systematic anti-vaccine campaign in India spreading various rumours on social and formal media. With the result there was lack of enthusiasm among the masses opting for inoculation and the enormous drive across the country could not pick-up thus left millions lagged behind the vaccination and we suffered more.
The expert opinions termed the reports baseless and shouldn’t be paid any heed towards these things.
No harm for being engaged over the social media, but the only official and credible medical opinion should be taken seriously.
