Plea in SC for direction to seek details on COVID-19 from China, WHO to facilitate antidote development
Jun 02, 2020
New Delhi [India], June 2 : A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking directions to the Centre to make a representation to China and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and seek information on COVID-19 to facilitate in developing an effective antidote for the virus.
The PIL, filed by a doctors' organisation -- Doctors For You, urged the top court to direct the government to make representation to China to share the epidemiology, evolution, clinical data and full extent of data, indicators and statistics on the coronavirus, which it said has put at stake the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
It will help the Indian medical scientists and doctors to research and have a better chance of developing an antidote for the virus, the plea said.
It said that while the pandemic puts the lives of everyone around the world at stake, China was successful in controlling and restricting the virus and this allowed the authorities to direct for reopening of the wet markets.
The plea sought direction for the central government to call upon China to allow a probe by representatives of the most affected countries to assess the severity and dynamics of COVID-19.
"Direct the respondent (Centre) to call upon China, through diplomatic channels, to share the RNA sequence of the various strains and mutations that have been found in the vicinity of Wuhan, to assist and collaborate in ongoing research to the potential line of treatments to cure the affected persons and provide with details of vaccines in the process to abate the effects of the virus," the plea said.
Further, it sought directions for the Centre to call upon the WHO for its delay in notifying to the world community of the pandemic and supporting China to display an underplay effect of the pandemic statistics.
It sought directions for the government to approach the WHO to immediately initiate a probe and not to keep the investigation pending on the uncertainty of it being tamed.
"It is necessary to study the ground zero (the place from where the virus originated) for development of a vaccine by Indian medical scientists. This knowledge is necessary to develop an effective vaccine for coronavirus, including its various mutations," the plea said.
"It is also necessary to study how the virus jumped species and affected the human population. The study of ground zero is also imperative to understand the cause of the spread of the virus and develop effective ways to prevent the spread of similar diseases in the future," it added.
