In the middle of understanding the Covaxin vaccine, a heated debate has emerged over acknowledgment from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Indian Council of Medical Research, India's premier medical research body has asked the authors for the removal of its acknowledgment from a study conducted by Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

"ICMR Raises Concerns Over Covaxin Study: Calls for Removal of Acknowledgment"

The study is titled "Long-Term Safety Analysis of the BBVl52 Coronavirus Vaccine in Adolescents and Adults: Findings from a 1-Year Prospective Study in North India" by Kaur et al., published in the journal Drug Safety.

Indian Council of Medical Research accused the authors of the study for falsely adding acknowledgment of ICMR's support on its findings. They also pointed out that there were big problems with the methodology about how the study was done, which raises doubts about its findings.

ICMR's Chief, Rajiv Bahl, said through ANI that the acknowledgment was mistakenly included by the study's authors without asking permission or telling the ICMR.

ICMR
Source: Youtube

In the letter to the authors and the journal, Springer Nature, he also stressed on the need to remove the acknowledgment and publish a correction. It also said failure to do so may attract legal and administrative action. This situation affects the study's credibility, which looked into the long-term safety of the Covaxin vaccine, a vital part of India's vaccination plan.

Covaxin, created by Bharat Biotech with ICMR's help, is one of the two vaccines that is used by the Government of India to vaccinate millions of people. People have questioned how well Covaxin works and if it's safe. The study aimed to provide more information about its long-term safety.

Bahl's concerns about the study's methods make people wonder if its conclusions of this study are even reliable. He said the study didn't follow the standards for looking at vaccine safety, like the 'Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI)' standards. Also, using phone calls for data collection a year after people got vaccinated, without verification and checking any clinical records or physician examination, makes the study's results less reliable and more biassed.

It's important to know that the ICMR said it didn't give any financial or technical support for this study. This shows how serious the situation is because the acknowledgment wrongly suggests the ICMR was involved when it wasn't.

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