Hyderabad: First there were the mice, and some rats. Then came Syrian hamsters and the rabbits. And finally there were the rhesus macaque monkeys. The lakhs of people receiving Covaxin to keep themselves safe from Covid-19, and to help stop the spread of the disease in India and elsewhere in the world, have much to thank these animals for.
Not just because these animals were the first ones to receive the jabs of the three vaccine candidates developed by scientists at the Bharat Biotech, along with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
Not just because the animals were deliberately injected with the SARS-CoV-2 to test the efficacy of the candidate vaccines while in their cages in a high security Level 4 biosafety hazard lab at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
But because at the end of the study periods, each of them was put to sleep for ever before necropsies were performed on their bodies by the scientists who studied what the virus did to the…