Tag Archives: Covaxin

Is Covaxin’s WHO approval guaranteed?

Posted on October 29, 2021 by VM

I suspect after reading this PTI report that the WHO is practically helping Bharat Biotech put together a better application to have its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, get the body’s approval for international use, instead of simply considering what Bharat Biotech … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Science | Tagged Balram Bhargava, Bharat Biotech, clinical trials, COVAX, Covaxin, Drug Controller General of India, Indian Council of Medical Research, World Health Organization | Comments Off

It’s great that the WHO isn’t just ‘not cutting corners’

Posted on October 27, 2021 by VM

Call me anti-national (and I’m sure many will) but I’m glad that the WHO isn’t just “not cutting corners” in the process of considering Bharat Biotech’s application for the UN body’s stamp of approval Covaxin but is also openly calling … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis | Tagged Bharat Biotech, Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, clinical trials, Covaxin, Drug Controller General of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Soumya Swaminathan | Comments Off

Where the atmanirbharta in spine?

Posted on October 22, 2021 by VM

Truth be told, I didn’t expect CSIR chief Shekhar Mande could be so disingenuous. “India didn’t have to depend on western countries,” he says. What is this abject refusal to thank other countries for help – and preferring instead to … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Uncategorized | Tagged 100 crore doses, Balram Bhargava, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Covaxin, Covishield, Indian Council of Medical Research, Make in India, remdesivir, RT-PCR tests, Shekhar Mande | Leave a comment

Bharat Biotech gets 1/10 for tweet

Posted on June 15, 2021 by VM

If I had been Bharat Biotech’s teacher and “Where is your data?” had been an examination question, Bharat Biotech would have received 1 out of 10 marks. The correct answer to where is your data can take one of two … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged Bharat Biotech, Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, Covaxin, Drug Controller General of India, Food and Drug Administration, gatekeeping, patriarchy, phase 3 clinical trials, scientific journals, scientific knowledge, scientific publishing | Leave a comment

Magic bridges

Posted on March 1, 2021 by VM

The last two episodes of the second season of House, the TV series starring Hugh Laurie as a misanthropic doctor at a facility in Princeton, have been playing on my mind off and on during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of its … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Science | Tagged anti-patterns, completeness, Covaxin, COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines, Covishield, Dr House, faith, free and informed consent, hard coding, imaginary numbers, knowledge | Leave a comment

What the DNA Bill needs

Posted on February 5, 2021 by VM

The following article has been published in The Wire, but since it began as a blog post and because I haven’t published anything else in a while, I’m using it here as well. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on S&T, Forests … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Science | Tagged Covaxin, COVID-19 vaccines, Covishield, crime scene investigation, DNA Bill, forensic science, jagatguru complex, Jairam Ramesh, mitochondrial DNA, nuclear DNA, scientific evidence, two-finger test | Leave a comment

Pandemic: Science > politics?

Posted on January 19, 2021 by VM

By Mukunth and Madhusudhan Raman Former Union health secretary K. Sujatha Rao had a great piece in The Indian Express on January 14, whose takeaway she summarised in the following line: Science, evidence and data analytics need to be the … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Op-eds, Science | Tagged Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, Covaxin, COVID-19 pandemic, Covishield, criminal negligence, democracy, middle class, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scientism, Tamil Nadu elections, West Bengal elections | Leave a comment

India’s missing research papers

Posted on August 9, 2020 by VM

If you’re looking for a quantification (although you shouldn’t) of the extent to which science is being conducted by press releases in India at the moment, consider the following list of studies. The papers for none of them have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged Bharat Biotech, Biocon, Covaxin, COVID-19, COVID-19 epidemic, COVID-19 pandemic, ELISA test kit, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, Indian Council of Medical Research, Itolizumab, novel coronavirus, peer review, preprint papers, remdesivir, science academies, science by press release, seroprevalence survey, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, tocilizumab, Zydus Cadila | Leave a comment