A group of experts in public health, ethics, medicine, law, and journalism have written to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Drugs Controller General of India V.G. Somani, appealing for “time-bound and transparent investigation” following deaths and serious adverse effects after COVID-19 vaccination.
“We understand that at least 65 deaths have occurred following vaccination for COVID-19 since the vaccination campaign started on January 16. However, the National AEFI (adverse event following immunisation) Committee’s investigation findings of only two of these deaths have been made public. We believe that due to the possible linkages of vaccination and blood clotting, all these deaths and adverse events should be reviewed together for a possible causal relationship with the vaccine,” reads the letter.
The experts underline that even as the Indian health administration continues to be indifferent to the adverse effects of vaccination, several countries across the world such as Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Ireland have paused immunisation with Astra Zeneca vaccine pending investigation of a small number of post-vaccination deaths from intravascular clotting/ thromboembolic events. Austria has even suspended the use of certain batches.
The signatories of the letter include Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics; Veena Johari, lawyer; Anand Grover, Senior Advocate and Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health; Brinelle Dsouza, Co-convener, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan; Imrana Qadeer, Former Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU; Sylvia Karpagam, Public Health Doctor and Researcher.
They have demanded a transparent investigation into each of the adverse incidents and sought details of all serious AEFIs till date, status of their investigation, findings of AEFI probe including cause of death by clinical diagnosis, autopsy findings, causality assessment and the process undertaken by AEFI committees to arrive at their conclusions.
“The vaccine programme should provide people complete information on the vaccines, a vaccination protocol that minimises the risk of harm, and an assurance of thorough and transparent investigation of injuries and death following immunisation. They are also owed medical care, and compensation for harm suffered post vaccination. The government has not met these obligations.”
