Senior AAP leader and Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday expressed grave concern over AstraZeneca’s admission that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause heart attacks and strokes, citing reports of sudden deaths in recent years and bans on the Covishield vaccine in European countries in 2021.

Addressing a press conference, the Delhi Health Minister raised concerns about the central government’s continuing promotion of this vaccine despite such risks, highlighting issues of blood clots and falling platelet counts leading to heart attacks.

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Bharadwaj emphasised the magnitude of the situation, urging immediate action from the central government to safeguard the lives of crores of Indians. He criticised the government’s silence in the face of AstraZeneca’s admission and called for urgent measures to address the looming threat to the nation’s population.

The senior AAP leader said this is related to the health and life of every citizen of India. “We have seen thousands of examples in the past couple of years where young people suddenly collapse and die on the spot. A youth died while dancing at a wedding, while a bride died during her wedding ceremony. In Gujarat, where young women and men have been doing Garba (folk dance) for decades, a youth suddenly collapsed on the ground and died. In Ramlila ground, a man died while delivering dialogues. We have seen hundreds of such videos in the last two or three years because these incidents happened when the deceased was involved in an activity in public gatherings, and his/her activities were being recorded,” he added.

The Delhi Health Minister further said, “There must be thousands of such people quietly pursuing their daily routines, whether at home or in offices. Ordinary individual hardly gets recorded throughout the day; they simply live their lives. An ordinary person rarely gets recorded, hardly for a few minutes in a day or 2 to 4 times a month if there’s any occasion. In the last 2-3 years, thousands of people breathed their last while living their normal lives. With each loss of life, the basic question that arises is was it due to the COVID-19 vaccine?”

“You can Google it; you will see hundreds of such news articles in leading newspapers. “Is the sudden rise in heart attacks related to COVID-19 vaccine?’ This question is in everyone’s mind. People are worried because almost all the members of their families have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Until now, there were only doubts and worries, but now it seems their suspicions have turned out to be true,” he added.

Bharadwaj mentioned that a UK court has filed a class action lawsuit against AstraZeneca and a claim of a whopping Rs 1,000 crore (100 million pounds) has been made against them.

“Who has made the claim? Those citizens whose family members either died or became severely ill after taking this vaccine. Two days ago, AstraZeneca admitted for the first time in the UK court documents that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause rare side effects. AstraZeneca had also partnered with Adar Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India (SII), to manufacture the ‘Covishield vaccine’, which was administered to millions of people in India by the Indian Government. This vaccine was vigorously promoted by the Government of India throughout the country. The rare side effects include blood clotting and depleting platelet count, which could result in brain stroke and heart attack,” the senior AAP leader said.

“This is alarming news, and the company’s acceptance of the potential side effects in the court raises concerns amongst the billions of citizens of our country, their families, and young children. What should they do now? What should the government do now? What precautions should they take, and what tests should they undergo to find out whether blood clotting has started even in their bodies due to this Covishield vaccine? And what has the central government done so far to address this?” he questioned.

The senior AAP leader said, “There is a need to act on a war footing. The central government should engage with AstraZeneca, scientists, doctors, and cardiologists. We need to understand the warning signs to look out for in our children and identify the symptoms indicative of potential side effects. What specific blood tests need to be done? How frequently should these tests be repeated? It’s crucial to ensure that those experiencing the side effects receive timely medical help to save lives. After all, saving lives is the responsibility of the government.”

“Over the past two days, we have been hopeful that the government would take decisive steps. This news has been circulating for two days now, and we waited the whole day yesterday to see the central government’s response on this matter. We believe that there should be no politics on this issue because it is a matter of millions of lives, especially the youth. But when the government slept on this issue, no action was seen from the central government. We are asking the government what is its plan of action in this matter,” Bharadwaj added.

The senior AAP leader played a video compilation from a YouTube channel, which showed how in different parts of India, young people, who appeared to be in perfect health, suddenly fell, collapsed, and died in a suspicious manner. He said there are thousands of videos on YouTube that question if these incidents have been happening due to the COVID-19 vaccine. But this issue was being suppressed,” he said.

The Delhi Health Minister further said, “I came across a BBC report that appeared in March 2021, which is almost 3 years old. This report states that ‘Covishield has been under suspicion in European countries since 2021, and most of these countries have banned the use of Covishield. Please remember that I am talking about 2021. Countries like Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Austria, among others, had banned Covishield back in 2019, even as the Indian government was making it compulsory in India.”

“When the Indian government was going around and running vaccination drives across the country. There were restrictions on the public movement. They mandated the vaccine and said that even if you have to go by plane or to a hospital, you will have to get vaccinated. A gateway for the vaccine was created at every place, so that you can do this work only if you take the vaccine. All of this was happening in India at the time when the use of the ‘Covishield’ vaccine was banned in European countries,” he said.

He added that the central government must answer significant questions in this regard from 2021 to 2024.

“It is strange that even when AstraZeneca itself has admitted that the side effects of its vaccine could lead to heart attack and brain stroke in rare cases, the central government is maintaining silence. The central government has not yet announced its plan to save the people of this country,” the Delhi Health Minister added.