Under the chairmanship of Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog, the Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration will meet on August 12 to discuss logistics & ethical aspects of coronavirus vaccine procurement & administration, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a tweet on Tuesday. The Committee must communicate with all stakeholders including governments of the state and manufacturers of vaccines.
A coronavirus vaccine faces the world with bated breath. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Serum Institute of India (SII) said it had signed an agreement with the Gavi International Vaccine Alliance and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to speed up the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines for India and other low-income countries by up to 100 million do.
On the other side, Russia appears to be leading the chase for a coronavirus vaccine as Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko recently said the Gamaleya Institute, a state-owned testing facility in Moscow, had completed the vaccine’s clinical trials and paperwork is preparing to register it, said Interfax news agency. The pace at which Russia moves to carry it out, however, has caused some Western media to question whether Moscow puts national prestige above science and security.
