Govt panel confirms first death linked to vaccines

The panel, which released data for vaccinations only till the first week of April, examined five deaths reported following vaccination on February 5, eight cases from March 9 and 18 cases from March 31.

As per the panel, while the reporting rate was 2.7 deaths and 4.8 hospitalisations per million vaccine doses administered, it did not automatically imply that the deaths or hospitalisations were caused due to vaccines. Only proper investigation and causality assessments can help establish any causal relationship, the report said.

It classified 18 of the 31 cases it assessed as having inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental, not linked to vaccination); 7 as indeterminate; 3 as vaccine-product related, 1 as anxiety-related reaction; and 2 as unclassifiable.

Vaccine-product related reactions were expected reactions, the panel said. Indeterminate reactions are reactions occurring soon after vaccination but with no definitive evidence in current literature or clinical trial data to show this could have been caused due to the vaccine.

Unclassifiable events are events which have been investigated but there is not enough evidence for assigning a diagnosis due to missing crucial information.

Coincidental events are events reported following immunisation for which a clear cause other than vaccination has been found.

“Over 26 crore doses have been administered… There is no doubt that we should get vaccinated. There is minuscule risk, almost negligible ; and there is a system to reduce this risk,” Dr V K Paul said.