Shiv Sena targets PM Modi over COVID-19 crisis

The fight against COVID-19 is more difficult than the mythological war of Mahabharata, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, adding that the battle against the pandemic will continue till 2021 as the disease vaccine won't be available before that.

PTI

July 07, 2020 / 11:13 AM IST

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The Shiv Sena on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed confidence that the battle against COVID-19 would be won in 21 days, but it has been over 100 days and the crisis still persists.

The fight against COVID-19 is more difficult than the mythological war of Mahabharata, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, adding that the battle against the pandemic will continue till 2021 as the disease vaccine won't be available before that.

It expressed concern over India reporting the third highest COVID-19 cases in the world.

It is unfortunate and serious for the country, which is dreaming to become a financial superpower, to report over 25,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, the Sena said.

We left Russia behind in terms of the number of cases. We will attain the number one slot in this unfortunate area if the number of cases continue to go up," it said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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