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Supreme Court: We can’t doubt COVID Vaccines, maybe there is another Issue

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Alka Verma

Published On: November 26, 2021 at 20:00 IST

On Friday, the Supreme Court of India heard a Petition related to the sudden spike in deaths after taking the vaccine of Covid-19.

The Supreme Court heard a Petition which requested the Court to pass certain directions to Centre for following up, recording and advertising all the cases in which sudden death is happening within 30 days of immunization after COVID- 19  vaccinations.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who was appearing for the Petitioner, educated the Court that, “There were 900 reported deaths across the Country, linked to the vaccine, at the time this Petition was filed. Healthy people going for vaccination, collapsing and dying.”

However, a Bench headed by Justice D. Y. Chandrachud replied, “It may not be attributable to the vaccine, the vaccine not be the actual cause. What is the correlation? The vaccination does not control deaths for reasons aliunde.”

In reply to this, Advocate Gonsalves stated, “Maybe. But we must have a monitoring system which will record this. Also, these deaths have to be investigated- why did he die? was there a clot in the heart? A clot in the brain, he has to be taken for checking.”

Adding to this, Mr. Gonsalves referred to the 2015 guidelines of Central Government where 10 out of 1000 health workers were used to be appointed to check the adverse effect after vaccination.

However, when it was revised in 2020, it only a provided a  passive surveillance after immunization, added Gonsalves. According to which only the cases of the patients whose family have registered will be taken into account.

“That is why there is this unbelievable number of official deaths in the India, of only 2 or 3!”, stated Mr. Gonsalves.

“You cannot say ‘unbelievable’. We have to look at the countervailing benefits of vaccination! We cannot send a message that there is some problem with the vaccination. The WHO has spoken in favor of vaccines, countries across the World are doing it! We cannot just cast doubt on it,” stated Justice Chandrachud.

“Also, the revised guidelines also provide another channel for tracking ‘serious and minor AEFI’. They require ‘monthly progress reports’ through the ‘peripheral health staff’ which would be including Asha workers”, Justice Chandrachaud added.

However, at the end the Apex Court allowed Mr. Gonsalves to serve a copy of the Plea on the office of the Solicitor General, and posted the matter after 2 weeks for the further hearing.

Also Read: Legal View: COVID-19 Vaccination in India

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