Tennis star Jimmy Connors backs COVAXIN, urges US to approve the Indian vaccine

Amid surging COVID-19 cases in the US, American tennis legend Jimmy Connors has asked the government to allow COVAXIN vaccine shots for use in the country. The star player called on the Biden government and the country’s regulatory authority to recognise India’s indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine for its vaccination programme. His comment came after the US set a single-day record of new infections on Tuesday, with 441,278 COVID-19 cases.

Tennis legend Jimmy Connors has now urged the US government to allow COVAXIN “get in the game”. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Connors asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow the Indian vaccine into its vaccination programme. “You always talk about Pfizer- J&J- Moderna vaccines — may be a nod to COVAXIN – ocgn – an opportunity to have an option – a choice- allow COVAXIN to get in the game– I’m no Dr.- but the others have had a chance- why not #COVAXIN,” Connors tweeted. He also tagged various US news agencies on the post.

Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN

COVAXIN is developed by Hyderabad-based Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology, the Indian Council of Medical Research (NIV-ICMR). COVAXIN is administered in a two-dose regimen, 28 days apart. The vaccine was approved for emergency use in India for people aged 18 and above. The World Health Organisation (WHO) too added the vaccine to its list of approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines last month. 

The WHO had granted approval for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for COVAXIN after thorough research. It was recognized after a Technical Advisory Group determined if the COVID-19 vaccine met WHO standards for protection against the coronavirus. Now, the American tennis star has made an appeal to the US government to follow the same and recognize the vaccine as the country witnessed a significant rise in COVID-19 cases due to the emergence new coronavirus variant Omicron.

US COVID tally

Fresh COVID-19 cases in the United States have reached record highs which an average of 300,000 each day, or 2 1/2 times the number just two weeks earlier. As per the CDC, the highly infectious Omicron has accounted for 59 per cent of new infections last week. Meanwhile, as per Worldometers, over 55,226,252 individuals have been affected by the disease in the nation since the outbreak, and more than 845,712 people have lost their lives due to Coronavirus. 

Amid the surge of the new Omicron variant in the US, children admitting in the hospitals is creating near-record numbers, with specialists lamenting the fact that most of the children have been unvaccinated. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an average of 334 children, who are 17 and under that age, were admitted to hospitals with the coronavirus disease each day during the week of December 21 to 27. This is a 58 per cent rise than the previous week. 

Image: AP/ PTI