The Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors (KARD) has written to the Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education demanding that they should be given a choice to choose a vaccine.
In a letter to the Minister, the officebearers of the association have demanded that house surgeons, postgraduates and super speciality residents of government medical and dental colleges should be provided vaccines that have shown results with respect to safety and efficacy. They have also stated that the vaccines which have got results of phase III should be given.
This comes as doctors in six districts will be given Covaxin, where as other centres in Karnataka have been receiving Covishield. “Before receiving Covaxin, we have been made to take an undertaking stating that the clinical efficacy of Covaxin is yet to be established. The undertaking and the discrepancies in the distribution of the vaccine sounds very suspicious and the resident doctors are very grounded in getting vaccinated,” the letter states.
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The resident doctors have stated that they feel discriminated against and it was a matter of concern that the government has decided to inject vaccine whose phase III results are yet to be declared. Covaxin is being administered in vaccine sites set up in district hospitals of Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Ballari, Shivamogga, Chamarajanagar and Davangere.
The doctors have pointed out that the consent form states that as the third phase of clinical efficacy is yet to be established, receiving the vaccine does not mean that other precautions related to COVID 19 need to be followed.
What is a matter of concern, doctors point out, is that it has been stated that in case of adverse events, you will be provided medically recognised standard of care in government designated and authorised centres/hospitals.
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