If the news was all Covid-19-related doom and gloom for the better part of 2020, the last couple of weeks have been awash with optimistic h...
If the news was all Covid-19-related doom and gloom for the better part of 2020, the last couple of weeks have been awash with optimistic headlines. Several vaccine candidates have been reported to show potential that exceeds expectations.
India has not been immune to this excitement. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that the country is betting on for the early rounds of immunisation has shown fairly promising results too.
The Pune-based Serum Institute of India, which is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer,has tied up with the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca to commercially produce and market this vaccine in India if and when it is approved.
But allegations that surfaced late last week concerning possible side-effects of this vaccine may have punctured some of the initial euphoria. Public health activists say that the seeming lack of transparency that they believe the episode reflects could result in public distrust and hurt India’s efforts to inoculate people.
An explosive allegation
The controversy began when a volunteer from Chennai who had participated in the vaccine’s trial went public with a threat to sue Serum India Institute, the Pune-based company that is conducting trials on the vaccine in India.
The person’s lawyer and family alleged he had suffered serious neurological impairment after the under-trial coronavirus vaccine was administered to him. In a legal notice...
