The pharmaceutical giant is being sued in a class-action suit over claims that its Covid-19 vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury, including TTS – thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome – a serious adverse event that causes blood clots and a low blood platelet count.
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Venugopalan Govindan, father of Karunya, who died after taking the vaccine, said the admission by AstraZeneca is “too late” and has come after so many lives have been lost. “AstraZeneca and SII should have stopped the manufacture and supply of these vaccines when 15 European countries either suspended or age-limited these due to deaths from blood clots that happened in March 2021, within a couple of months of the rollout of the vaccine itself.”
The parents have filed a writ petition seeking compensation, appointment of an expert medical board independent of the government to forthwith inquire into and investigate the deaths of their daughter, and to share the report of the investigation with them.
When asked, SII said they “won’t be commenting on this matter”.
According to reports, AstraZeneca has admitted in a legal document that its Covid vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS”.
“In India, Covishield which was used to vaccinate 90% of India’s population has done well,” a senior person from the Covid working group told ET, playing down concerns of adverse events, despite the rare risk of TTS.
Experts also emphasised the overwhelming benefits of vaccination in mitigating the impact of the virus.Govindan said the manufacturer and the government advertised Covid vaccines throughout the nation at huge expense to exchequer as “safe and effective” without sufficient data. When data emerged about the adverse events from around the world, they chose not to stop the rollout or at least sensitise people and the medical fraternity about it, he said. “The regulatory bodies that approved it and subsequently didn’t intervene to stop it when data emerged about the dangers, are all culpable in the death of my daughter and countless others who have died after taking this so-called vaccine,” he alleged.
The current cases till the end, he said. “If sufficient remedies aren’t obtained, for the sake of justice and to prevent recurrence of this atrocity that was perpetrated in the name of public health, we will file fresh cases against any and all of those perpetrators because of whose actions the deaths of our children ensued,” he said.
