India Narrative

  Chief WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan has cautioned against knee-jerk reactions to early studies that hinted the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may have reduced efficacy against the new variant. She pointed out that the studies done so far were small and that the reduction in the "neutralising activity" varied dramatically between different studies. five fold in some experiments to up to 40-fold in others. They also only looked at the neutralisation of antibodies, when "we know the immune system is much more complex than that," she said. "So I think it's premature to conclude that this reduction neutralising activity would result in a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness," she said. "We do not know that." The WHO experts stressed the importance of vaccination , highlighting that even if vaccines prove less effective against Omicron, as some data indicates, they are still expected to provide significant protection against severe disease.

  In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, authorities have initiated verification and fresh registration of around 6,000 non-governmental agencies after a case of human trafficking surfaced in the valley. At least two Covid orphans were found to have been ‘sold’ by an NGO, leading to registration of FIR against the group and arrest of two persons allegedly involved in the human trafficking. Officials said that an investigation was launched by the Police, one FIR registered and two persons of Sambora, Pampore, arrested after it was reported in the national media that some individuals had indulged in offering young Covid orphans for adoption against monetary considerations by some individuals outside Jammu and Kashmir. A collective of clergymen issued an appeal for a “sustained campaign” against trafficking of the young Kashmiri children whose parents had died due to the pandemic in the last 20 months. According to the officials, the Police Station of Pampore received a written app