Government begins tracking data to understand vaccine effectiveness

The government has started establishing a vaccine tracking platform which will monitor vaccine effectiveness on a regular basis. Experts have started harmonising three data sets — from the health ministry, Co-WIN portal and laboratory testing data — using common factors such as Aadhaar, telephone number, passport number and address to link those.

“The system will evaluate the impact of the vaccine. Data harmonisation has started. In the next few weeks we will know the real-world effectiveness of both vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin),” said a senior government official. The system will look into serious infections and breakthrough infections (infections in vaccinated people), and whether the breakthrough infections are leading to deaths.

“This will even tell the effectiveness of one dose and two doses, too. The system has started working,” added the official.


This is the first study by the government on the effectiveness of the vaccines. A recent comparative study conducted by independent experts, including 29 doctors from across India, found that both Covishield and Covaxin work well. However, as per this study, it appeared that Covishield may have the ability to produce more antibodies and a higher seropositivity rate among recipients.

Among 515 healthcare workers (305 male and 210 female), 95% showed seropositivity (higher antibodies) after two doses of both vaccines, their paper said. “Of the 425 Covishield and 90 Covaxin recipients, 98.1% and 80%, respectively, showed seropositivity. However, both seropositivity rate and average rise in anti-spike antibody were significantly higher in Covishield versus Covaxin recipients,” it said.

Bharat Bio, the developer of Covaxin, said the findings contained “flaws” and that the report was neither a peer-reviewed publication, nor the study a statistically and scientifically designed one. The experts who conducted the study did not observe any difference in relation to gender, body mass index, blood group and any comorbidity.