‘First soldiers, now vaccine’: Hardeep Singh Puri slams Akhilesh Yadav, Shashi Tharoor over Covid-19 vaccine

Jan 03,2021

‘First soldiers, now vaccine’: Hardeep Singh Puri slams Akhilesh Yadav, Shashi Tharoor over Covid-19 vaccine

A day after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned India’s Covid-19 vaccines and said he won’t take “BJP’s vaccine”, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor too doubted the approval given to Bharat Biotech’s vaccine while its third phase trial is going on.

Slamming their doubts, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Jairam, Tharoor and Akhilesh are behaving true to form. “They first questioned the valour of our soldiers and now unhappy that the two vaccines to get DCGI nod are made in India,” he wrote. “Clearly, they are on a quest for permanent political marginalisation,” he added.

As Hardeep Singh Puri termed the three politicians as the “in-house cynics”, Jairam Ramesh replied to Puri by calling him the “in-house Goebbels-cum-Albert Speer”, referring to two politicians who were close to Adolf Hitler.

Before the Drug Control General of India gave the go-ahead to Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use of their vaccines on Sunday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Twitter claimed that though Bharat Biotech is a first-rate enterprise, internationally accepted protocols relating to phase three trials are being modified for Covaxin.

In the same strain, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor claimed that the approval to Bharat Biotech was premature. “The Covaxin has not yet had Phase 3 trials. Approval was premature and could be dangerous. @drharshvardhan should please clarify. Its use should be avoided till full trials are over. India can start with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the meantime,” Tharoor said.
The DGCI while announcing the approval to the two vaccine candidates clarified that both are running their third phase of trial which will continue.
‘How can I trust BJP’s Covid-19 vaccine’: Akhilesh Yadav won’t get vaccinated for now

AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria too said that the approvals have been given keeping all aspects in mind, including the new mutant strain. He also clarified that Bharat Biotech’s vaccine can be used as a backup while Serum’s Oxford vaccine will be primarily given. “Initially, Serum Institute vaccine will be given. They already have 50 million doses available and they’ll be able to give that in initial phase where we will vaccinate around three crore people. Gradually, we will build on it and by the time Bharat Biotech data will also be available,” Guleria said.

On Saturday, Akhilesh Yadav doubted the efficacy of the vaccines stirring a controversy, to which his party MLC Ashutosh Sinha contributed and said anything can happen. The vaccine can make you impotent, he claimed.

DCGI VG Somani on Sunday rubbished all these claims and said the apex body would never have approved anything, had there been even the slightest safety concerns. he also said that vaccines are 100 per cent safe.