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What is the difference between Covishield vs Covaxin? And what is the difference between the two types of vaccines? Which one is really better? These are all good questions.
Covishield Vs Covaxin: The differences between the two main types of vaccines are easy to spot. The major difference is in the strength of the protection. Covishield is a weaker variant of the adenovirus vaccine than covaxin. The major difference in their protective potency is that a weaker variant can help protect against the common cold virus while covishield has the ability to prevent and treat more severe forms of acute viral illness.
The weakness of the adenovirus vaccine is that it cannot protect you against the Lassa fever strain. This strain is highly contagious and caused the Lassa fever epidemics in countries like India. So any vaccine that prevents you from contracting a strain like Lassa is of limited use as there aren’t any. However the rotavirus vaccine can be used successfully in countries like India to prevent common strains like Lassa. So it is concluded that both the two vaccines are useful for preventing rotavirus. The weakness in both the vaccines is the inability to prevent a stronger strain of the common cold virus, which is called the Lassa fever.
Another consideration for choosing the right vaccine is if you reside in an area that sees unusually high numbers of bird-flu related cases. This is especially relevant if you live in states like Wisconsin, Illinois, or Indiana where there have been a lot of bird-flu related cases recently. In these states vaccines available for the meningococcus and the meningococcal disease strains remain the only options for immunization. Two vaccines available for men in these states that were previously used for women only are now available for men. So both the man and the woman can benefit from the vaccinations against the bird flu and the rotavirus.
One thing that has made the debate between covishield vs covaxin quite interesting is the difference in price. Although the vaccines themselves are available in many countries and are cheap to purchase, they are still quite expensive. During Covid 19 there has been some push back from the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture the products about the possibility of a market shift due to high prices. However, this does not mean that the vaccines will necessarily be more expensive in India than in America and vice versa.
One way to understand the difference in effectiveness of the two vaccines is to look at their formulation and the differences in their manufacturing processes. Moderna is a modern manufacturing process which involves the use of more modern equipment to speed up the process of making the vaccines. This means that the vaccines are less contaminated and manufacturing process is also faster. In addition, the ingredients used in modern are not prone to the kind of contamination problems that often affect the manufacturing of traditional vaccines.
There have also been recent outbreaks of meningitis and smallpox in India. The main difference between the two vaccines is that smallpox has been known to cause fatal outcomes in children while meningitis is generally mild and easily treatable. The latest updates on the manufacturing of the vaccines in India have done little to slow down production. It seems that with any new technology there is always the potential for a flaw or problem to emerge, but with modern vaccines the chances of these problems appearing are slim to none. As such, the latest updates on covishield vs covaxin vaccines are unlikely to alter the pricing in any significant way.
