New Delhi: In the wake of the admission by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in the British High Court on the potential side-effects of its vaccine known in India as Covishield — resulting in thrombosis and formation of blood clots, the Supreme Court was moved on Wednesday.
The petitioner has sought the setting up of a committee of experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, which should examine AstraZeneca’s vaccine, its side effects, and the risk factors involved. The committee should be headed by the AIIMS Director and supervised by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, petitioner Vishal Tiwari has said in his petition.
Demands By The Petitioner
Seeking compensation for the people adversely impacted by the vaccine, the petitioner has said, “I seek directions to the Union of India to establish a vaccine damage payment system for citizens who were severely disabled by the vaccination drive during the Covid pandemic. The Supreme Court should pass directions to the Centre to compensate people who are severely disabled or succumbed owing to the side effects of the vaccine administered to them.”
Tiwari, in his petition, has said that it was recently disclosed that the Covishield vaccine had caused and may still cause side effects in rare cases. The pharmaceutical company and developer of the vaccine, AstraZeneca, has said that its AZD1222 vaccine which was made under licence in India as Covishield could cause the formation of blood clots in “very rare” cases.
AstraZeneca Accepts Linkage Between Vaccine & TTS
“AstraZeneca has 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. AstraZeneca’s vaccine formula was licensed to Pune-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) during the coronavirus pandemic for the manufacture of Covishield. More than 175 crore doses of Covishield have been administered in India,” says the petition.
The UK-based media outlet, The Telegraph, has reported recently that “a case was lodged last year by Jamie Scott, a father of two, who was left with a permanent brain injury after developing a blood clot and bleeding in the brain that has prevented him from working after he received the vaccine in April 2021,” the plea said.
Further quoting from The Telegraph report, the petition says that in all, “fifty-one cases have been lodged in the High Court in the UK, with victims and grieving relatives seeking damages estimated to be worth up to £100 million.”
In India, after the pandemic, there has been an increase in the incidence of death due to heart attacks and sudden collapse, the plea said, adding that there have been some cases of heart attacks even in youngsters.
Seeking damages for the vaccine’s side effects, petitioner Tiwari has said that even in some countries like the UK there is a vaccine damage payment system for debilitating side-effects
