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Journalism of Courage
After the AYUSH ministry blocked the release of Patanjali “corona kit” and asked the company to furnish proof to back its claims, the company founded by Ramdev was the subject of many jokes online. Now, a satire by a graphic designer-videographer has a huge buzz online and mocks those who believed the tall claims made by the company blindly.
Vinu Joseph came up with a video that raises questions over the product, the clinical trials for it and how effective it is. The video shows a person approaching a Patanjali store to buy the product and asking, “Bhaiya bharosa kar sakte hain? (Brother can we trust this?)”.
Referencing popular jokes, the video mocks the firm for attempting to push its latest product without adequate trials.
“Support Ayurveda, not false claims,” the artist wrote while sharing the video.
Watch the video here:
Here are some of the reactions to the video:
The Uttarakhand government has said its licensing authority did not grant any approval for the product, and the Rajasthan government told The Indian Express it had no knowledge of clinical trials at National Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (NIMS), a private hospital in Jaipur where Covid-19 patients are admitted. Uttarakhand’s ayurvedic department said that Patanjali applied for a licence for an immunity booster, not a Covid-19 drug.
It was also revealed that when mildly symptomatic patients developed fever during the trials, they were administered allopathic medicines. As it is, the trials were conducted only on asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients. Severely symptomatic patients and those with acute respiratory distress syndrome were excluded for enrolment. However, Patanjali maintains that it broke no rules.
