Chhattisgarh government says it will not allow the vaccination of indigenous ‘Covaxin’ developed by Bharat Biotech until the company completes the third trial and comes up with reliable data.
Health minister T S Singh Deo said that since Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxine’ has not completed mandatory three trials, therefore it should not be allowed to be administered to the people. Chhattisgarh government will not allow Covaxine in the state and will not accept it if the central government sends it to us, he said.
Referring to the death of a volunteer after he was given Covaxine dose in Bhopal, Singh Deo pointed out that a large number of health experts have questioned the safety of the vaccine. Indian Government should not be seen making such decision in haste, because vaccination drive against the deadly Covid-19 may run till at least 500 to 700 days, then why so hurry ? he added.
Speculating a mad rush of similar vaccine candidates, the Chhattisgarh minister said that if a vaccine is approved without proper trial results and without taking into adequate safety parameters, several other companies will also line up for approval with inadequate trials. Covaxine was supposed to take 28 thousand samples but it had just 23,000 when it’s vaccine candidate was given a go-ahead by the government for emergency use, making the trial results suspicious, Singh Deo opined.
The position by the Chhattisgarh government reflects is in tune with the outlook, Congress’s top brass has adopted over approval of Pune-based Serums Institute and Hyderabad- based Bharat Biotech’s vaccines by the Modi government. Citing questions raised by the health experts, the grand old party has been trying to corner the government for its alleged haste in giving go-ahead to Covaxine without proper trial results. Several party leaders have raised the bogie of ‘clinical safety’, Congress governed states, however, have been busy preparing for the mass vaccination drive on the hand and lamenting the absence of transparency, simultaneously.