Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress sought a clarification from the Government following the controversy in the wake of an RTI reply that allegedly suggested that newborn calf serum has been used to make the Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine. Congress spokesman Pawan Khera said that the party wants “the Government and Bharat Biotech to respond to the reply that has come in the RTI, then we will give a detailed response on it”.
Gaurav Pandhi, the national coordinator of Digital Communications and Social Media at AICC, had tweeted the RTI response to applicant Vikas Patni. The “newborn calf serum is used in the revival process of Vero cells, which is further used for the production of coronavirus during the manufacturing of Covaxin,” read the response by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
Taking to Twitter, Pandhi cited the RTI response and said that the Modi government admitted that the vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech “consists Newborn Calf Serum which is a portion of clotted blood obtained from less than 20 days young cow-calves, after slaughtering them”. “This is heinous. This information should have been made public before,” added Pandhi. He also attached a screenshot of the response to the RTI application as well.