Sputnik shortage puts eligible booster dose recipients in a dilemma

New Delhi: With the number of Covid cases rising across the country and the Indian health ministry opening up booster doses for all adults, over 6.5 lakh people who received the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine in India are now scrambling to find a centre that will provide them with a booster dose of the same vaccine. As per the statement from the Health Ministry, all adults over the age of 18, who have completed nine months following the administration of the second dose, will be able to obtain precautionary Covid-19 doses at private healthcare centres from 10 April.
Looking at the data on the number of Sputnik V vaccinations so far, the CoWin portal has stated that around 12,22,845 Sputnik V vaccinations have been administered till now; however, presently the site shows no availability of Sputnik dosages at any hospitals (government or private) in Delhi. The Sunday Guardian spoke to a recipient of Sputnik V, who said, “I have taken Sputnik V but right now, I don’t know which booster dose is to be taken since Sputnik V is unavailable at the moment.”
To gather information on the availability of the Sputnik dosage in India, The Sunday Guardian tried reaching out to Dr Reddy’s Lab via mail, but it didn’t respond to the query on the unavailability of Sputnik. This correspondent approached G.V. Prasad, the co-chairman and MD of Dr Reddy’s lab, who later on texted that Usha Iyer, who handles media relations, would call, but this paper received no call till the time this story went to press. However, The Sunday Guardian also got in touch with the office of the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, and was again asked to either get in touch with the vaccination centres to get the details about the availability of the vaccine or to get in touch with Dr Reddy’s Lab. Similarly, this correspondent hasn’t received any response from the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and Sputnik for the availability of Sputnik vaccines in India.
The Russian-made Sputnik V was the first foreign vaccine authorised in India in 2021 after the Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum’s Covishield. India received around 56.6 tonnes of Sputnik dosages, according to several reports. Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a Russian official institute, claimed in May 2020 that Sputnik has “no side effects”. Since the launch of the Sputnik V in India by Dr Reddy’s Lab, the vaccine is considered the most expensive one in India. The CoWin portal has clearly stated that the price of the Sputnik V is Rs 1145, whereas the price of the other vaccines is Rs 386.25 for Covishield and Covaxina and Rs 990 for Corbevax.
Currently, people are looking for alternative ways to get the booster dose due to the shortage of availability of the Sputnik vaccination. The Sunday Guadian spoke to some doctors who suggested a few solutions to this dilemma. “In the phase 3 trial data of Sputnik, done in Central Asia and Belarus, the efficacy was 97.2% but that was during the pre-Delta phase. The efficacy has now come down during Omicron; at present, the efficacy is lower. Omicron tends to escape vaccine due to mutation; since Sputnik V is an adenovector based vaccine, it is a convenient dose and gives a better enhanced immune reaction,” Prof Dr Sanjeev Bagai, Chairman of Nephron Clinic, told The Sunday Guardian.
He further added, “If a person has received two doses of Sputnik, I recommend the third dose to be taken in six months, as per the International data; although the government has recommended nine months. There is no authentic data that shows mix and match trial platform is done. So, I recommend taking one of the adenovector platforms (vaccines) that are available in India as in the limited scenario, we have no choice.”
However, Dr Neetu Jain, a senior consultant at Pulmonology Critical care sleep medicine, told this correspondent, “Mixing vaccines are considered safe and effective.”