Defending vaccines is demoralising, but as crucial as making them: Top biologist

Fighting vaccine scepticism has become as important as creating new doses against diseases, a leading biologist whose team designed one of the several successful Covid-19 vaccines has said. In an interview with HT on Wednesday, Peter J Hotez, the dean of National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of paediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, touched upon future public health risks and stressed on the need to defend vaccines. Hotez was in Delhi to deliver a lecture at the 12th Foundation Day of DBT-BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) on Wednesday.

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How would you describe the journey with Corbevax, the Covid-19 vaccine?

It got fairly used— there were about 100 million doses that were administered including primary immunisation used for 75 million adolescents 12-14 years of age. The reason is it is an older technology similar to the hepatitis B vaccine that parents trust.

It provided proof of concept that you don’t have to be big multi-national pharma company to make your presence felt in the vaccine space. We successfully worked it out as an academic-industry partnership with a vaccine producer in a low- and middle-income country, including Biological E and Serum Institute of India. I think it’s a mechanism we need to explore more.

What is the focus of your India visit right now?

One of the reasons why I am here is we don’t want to make it just a one-off thing. We intend to have a portfolio of new vaccines that protect children, especially against neglected diseases. We are looking at a few collaborations in this space particularly for human hook worm vaccine which is a big cause of anaemia.

How detrimental is the anti-vaccine sentiment?

I have had a parallel life defending vaccines, which is something I never thought I will have to do. When I did my PhD in New York 40 years ago, it was assumed vaccines were life-saving technologies; so having to defend them is just demoralising but at the same time also important --- in fact, as important as making the vaccines themselves. I estimated in my new book that around 200,000 Americans maybe died because they refused Covid vaccines as they were targeted victims of the anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns.

According to you, how well did India manage the pandemic?

India overall managed very well with a very potent vaccine system in place. The anti-vaccine lobby wasn’t also so much over here. I only wish it had come a few months ahead of that Delta wave that killed many people in India. That was tragic.

What were the learnings of the past few years?

The big learning is that we have got SARS, MERS, Covid, and we will have a fourth major coronavirus by the end of this decade. All this is because these viruses circulate in bats and due to climate change, these bats have new migratory patterns. More people too are coming in contact with them and other animal reservoirs due to de-forestation and urbanisation. Pandemics are going to be the new normal, and we should recognise, if we haven’t already, that public health impact is just one element, these pandemics affect the economy, global security too. Therefore, we need to take these things seriously and be aware of the importance of vaccines.

Is it time to look beyond Covid?

There’s still Covid transmission and we have made a booster in partnership with Biological E but will have to see if that gets used. But in terms of vaccine ecosystem, it is important not to stop.