Fact Check: Dog vaccine wrongly quoted as COVID-19 vaccine being available since 2001

Hyderabad: Amid coronavirus pandemic many Indian pharmaceutical companies are eyeing to develop a vaccine. Recently Serum Company stated that they will be developing a vaccine by October this year. Amidst these comes a claim on social media that a vaccine against coronavirus has been available since 2001.

The post being shared on facebook reads, "Now this was 2001 tell me why 19 years later, they say there is no vaccine share before they take it down again.(sic)"

Some also shared it on Twitter

Fact Check:

Zooming in the image we can see that it is Nobiviac 1-Cv canine vaccine. Doing a simple Keyword search we found that the vaccine is manufactured by Merck Animal Health and is used in dogs to offer protection against canine coronavirus.

https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/nobivac/nobivac-canine-1-cv#Canine_1-Cv_Overview

Canine coronavirus was first diagnosed in 1971. The disease leads to gastronomical issues in canines. While COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus leads to respiratory issues in humans.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), "Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans. In humans, several coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes coronavirus disease COVID-19."

While, WHO has also stated that no vaccine has been approved yet to treat COVID-19.

Hence it can be noted that coronavirus has been prevalent from long, but the COVID-19 is a new form of the virus.

Centre for Cellular Microbiology Director Dr Rakesh Mishra said, "Vaccines used for animals have different components and vaccine used for Humans have different. Only after being tested and after approvals a vaccine is released. It is not possible to use a vaccine made for canine coronavirus infection on humans."

Hence the claim that vaccine for coronavirus was available since 2001 is fake. It is vaccine used to treat coronavirus in animals.