Congress slams Centre for not maintaining data of people who took Covid vaccine

According to reports, AstraZeneca made the admission of this rare side effect in court, as it faces a lawsuit alleging deaths caused by the vaccine. In 2023, the WHO stated that TTS emerged as a new adverse event following Covid-19 vaccination.

In India, the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and around 175 crore doses of the same were administered. Citing severe health issues leading to cases of brain stroke, heart attack, kidney and liver failure among young individuals, the Congress lashed out at the government for putting people’s lives at stake.

“Several questions are raised on how the government administered Covishield vaccines. Despite the WHO alerting countries in 2023 regarding emergency guidelines to maintain a database of people being administered the Covid-19 vaccine, why did our country not act, whereas every country followed these guidelines,” Gohil asked in a press conference.

He also questioned the government for not asking the Central Research Institute, established in 1905, to manufacture the vaccine and instead gave the contracts to SII and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which manufactured India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin.

“When we have a pioneer institute in vaccine like the 118-year-old Central Research Institute, whose work has been lauded by other countries, why one company, Serum Institute of India, was given the contract? The government gave Rs 3,000 crore advance to the company and Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Demanding compensation for all those who died of health complications after being vaccinated, Gohil said, “We have repeatedly raised this issue. This is criminal negligence. We believe this matter will go to court under Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). We expect suo motu action by the high court and the Supreme Court.”