A plea has been filed seeking setting up of an expert medical panel to study and assess the possible risk factors associated with the Astrazeneca’s Covishield vaccine, which was one of two vaccines administered in India against Covid-19.
Advocate Vishal Tiwari in his fresh application said that AstraZeneca had accepted a link between the vaccine and Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), a medical condition characterised by abnormally low levels of platelets and the formation of blood clots. Thus, a medical expert panel headed by a former apex court judge be constituted by the Supreme Court. Medical experts from All India Institute of Medical Science can be part of the panel to examine the side effects of the vaccine and its risk factors, he said.
The plea comes after Astrazeneca admitted before a UK court that Covishield has the potential to cause a rare side effect associated with blood clotting.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine formula was licenced to the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) for the production of the Covishield vaccine in India during the pandemic. More than 175 crore doses of Covishield have been administered in India, according to the petition.
The application highlights the increase in cases of heart attacks and sudden collapses post-COVID-19, particularly among younger individuals. “There have been a number of cases of heart attacks even in youngsters. Now, after the document filed in UK court by the developer of Covishield, we are compelled to think about the risks and hazardous consequences of Covishield vaccines which have been administered to the citizens in large numbers,” the PIL stated.Emphasising on the importance of prioritising this issue to prevent future health risks, Tiwari submitted that “the issue has to be looked upon by the Union Government on priority so that in future no risk may occur regarding the health and life of India Citizens.”He also called for a direction to the Centre to implement a vaccine damage payment system to compensate citizens who are severely disabled or deceased as a result of the vaccine.
Additionally, the plea urges the government to conduct awareness programmes on the dangers of counterfeit vaccines and ensure equitable distribution and affordable pricing of Covid -19 vaccines. It also wants the enactment of strict laws against the criminal act of selling or circulating counterfeit vaccines.
In November 2022, the Union government had told the top court that vaccines manufactured by third parties had successfully undergone regulatory review, and holding the State directly liable to provide compensation may not be “legally sustainable.”
