Yechury says there shouldn't be politics over COVID-19 vaccine, urges govt to share scientific proof
Jan 05, 2021
New Delhi [India], January 6 : Demanding that there should be no politics over the COVID-19 vaccine, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury has urged the central government to share the scientific proof of the vaccine to start the vaccination drive.
"There should be no politics on COVID-19 vaccine. The politics over vaccines is irrelevant and irresponsible. The politics over it is against humanity. The vaccine should be all and for free. The government should share the scientific proof of vaccines and do the vaccination transparently. It should be safe and responsibility of the government," Yechruy told ANI on Tuesday.
"People are dying and everyone wants that the vaccination should start as soon as possible. It is wrong to say that vaccine is coming due to someone's compassion. We condemn it," he added.
Several leaders from the opposition including Congress' Manish Tewari and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had raised questions over the COVID-19 vaccines.
Yechury alleged that Hyderabad based drug firm Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine--COVAXIN--has got approval without following due procedure.
"It is dangerous that Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine got approval for emergency use without due procedure. Doing vaccination in hurry will be very dangerous. The clinical trial for Bharat Biotech's vaccine is incomplete but it got approval, it is dangerous," he said.
Referring to the Pune based firm Serum Institute of India (SII) vaccine--Covishield, Yechury said, "A vaccine has got approval in England based on trials but in India, the trails were not completed. But giving approval for emergency use in India is wrong,"
SII has tied up with Astrazeneca and Oxford University to conduct trials in India and to produce the vaccines in India. The vaccine got the approval for use on December 30 by UK authorities.
On January 2, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted permission for restricted use in emergency situations to COVID-19 vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.
