White House Chief Medical Adviser and USA’s top pandemic expert Dr Anthony Fauci said that India’s homegrown vaccine, Covaxin, produced by Bharat Biotech, has been found to neutralise the B.1.617 variant or the Indian double mutant strain of the deadly virus.
“This is something where we’re still gaining data on a daily basis. But the most recent data, was looking at convalescent Sera of COVID-19 cases and people who received the vaccine used in India, the Covaxin. It was found to neutralise the 617 variants,” he added while talking to reporters on Tuesday.
“Despite the real difficulty that we are seeing in India, vaccination could be a very, very important antidote against this,” he mentioned.
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin works by teaching the immune system to make antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus. Later, these antibodies then attach themselves to viral proteins, such as the so-called spike proteins that stud its surface. It was approved for emergency use on January 3.
During the interaction, Dr Andy Slavitt, White House covid-19 Response Senior Advisor said that they have sent a strike team from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to India “to support the public health efforts there”.
