Misinformation by Oppn led to vaccine hesitancy in India: Union minister Puri

Sep 17,2021

Misinformation by Oppn led to vaccine hesitancy in India: Union minister Puri

Addressing reporters on Friday, Puri lauded the current ongoing vaccination drive and said, “The opposition parties were spreading misinformation that led to vaccine hesitancy. It is a matter of real happiness that we are manufacturing vaccines in large numbers. Vaccination drive has reached maturity.”

Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday continued to attack opposition parties over spreading misinformation which led to hesitancy in taking the vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India.

Addressing reporters on Friday, Puri lauded the current ongoing vaccination drive and said, “The opposition parties were spreading misinformation that led to vaccine hesitancy. It is a matter of real happiness that we are manufacturing vaccines in large numbers. Vaccination drive has reached maturity.”

On Thursday, the Union minister alleged that opposition parties resorted to false narratives and succeeded in creating vaccine hesitancy which the Centre had to face. He reminded them (opposition) that Covid-19 is the real enemy and not their political opponents. Puri also said vaccination was happening at record speed at present and the numbers would go up substantially in the coming months.

Previously, several leaders of the opposition, including the likes of Congress’ Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor, Digvijaya Singh and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav among others had questioned the Centre’s vaccination programme.

In December 2020, Digvijaya Singh stated that India should not be made an experiment lab and the citizens should not be made guinea pigs for vaccine trials.

After the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) gave emergency use approval to Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin on January 3, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Shashi Tharoor doubted the approval given to Bharat Biotech vaccine.

To this, Union minister Puri said in January that both leaders of the Congress were in-house cynics, adding they were unhappy that the two vaccines to get DCGI’s approval were made in India.

Authorities have so far administered more than 770 million doses to eligible beneficiaries. On Friday, a record number of over 200 million doses were given on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 71st birthday.