For now, Covaxin’s claim of efficacy against omicron is little science and a lot of conjecture

India’s top medical research body may be making tall claims about Covaxin’s efficacy against omicron—but most of it may be based on little or no data. The government’s Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), which co-developed Covaxin with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, has claimed that its covid-19 vaccine may have an edge against other shots currently available when it comes to new variants. The function of the spike protein in novel coronavirus is to infect the host cell, and the new omicron variant has 32 of its mutations in this part alone.