| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Covaxin has not been approved for children above 12 years, yet
Some netizens are claiming that Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin has got approval for being used on children above the age of 12 years. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that till the time of filing this article, only those above 18 years of age are eligible for Covid-19 vaccination in India.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Covaxin was approved for trial on children above the age of 12 years.
Health experts have warned that children below 18 years would be at risk in the third wave of Covid-19, which may hit India in 3-4 months. The main reason being cited is that they are yet to be inoculated against the infection.
Meanwhile, some netizens are claiming that Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin has got approval for being used on children above the age of 12 years. A Facebook user wrote, “Great News : Bharat Biotech’s (Made in India) Covaxin Approved for Children Above 12 years”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that till the time of filing this article, only those above 18 years of age are eligible for Covid-19 vaccination in India. Bharat Biotech though was given permission to conduct trials on children above 12 years for Covid-19 vaccination.
Several users are sharing the post believing the information to be true. The archived version can be seen here.
AFWA probe
The Press Information Bureau has refuted the viral claim and said, “This claim is fake. No such approval has been given by the Government of India. Currently, citizens above the age of 18 are eligible for the Covid-19 vaccination.”
As per the health ministry, “The general practice is to first evaluate any new vaccine in older population, and then age reduction is done to assess the safety and effectiveness in paediatric population. The currently available vaccines have not been evaluated in children so far. There are some clinical trials now underway to test the effectiveness and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines in children.”
In January this year, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved Covaxin for trial among children above the age of 12 years.
The following month, however, a subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation rejected Bharat Biotech’s request to conduct clinical trials of Covaxin on children aged 5-18 and asked it to first produce efficacy data on adults.
But it is clear that as of now, Covaxin has not been approved for use on children above the age of 12 years. It is only in trial stage.
Update: After the publishing of this story, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) recommended Covaxin for Phase 2/3 clinical trial on those aged between 2 and 18 years, as per a report published in “The New Indian Express”. According to the report, the trial will take place on 525 subjects at various sites, including AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Patna and Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences at Nagpur.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)