Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week,...
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The Big Story: Sound and fury
It has been an eventful few days in India.
On Saturday, the country began its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, a mammoth effort that will put the capacity of the Indian state capacity to the test. The drive began even as questions continued to be asked about Covaxin, one of the two vaccines the Indian government is using: without phase 3 trial results, it is still unclear how effective it is.
The government is rolling out Covaxin to millions of citizens while insisting that it is in “clinical trial mode”. Even as concerns remain about how “informed consent” will work in the case of Covaxin, one doctors’ organisation in Delhi demanded that they be given Covishield, the other vaccine with published efficacy numbers.
The last few days have also seen Mumbai Police file a chargesheet in the case to allegedly manipulate television ratings. The chargesheet includes transcripts purported WhatsApp chats between Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former Chief Executive Officer of the...
