Ahead of the nationwide Covid vaccination drive set to take off on January 16, Congress again raised safety-related issue of the vaccine and state party chief Ajay Kumar Lallu asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to take the first shot to dispel public doubt.
“I urge Yogi ji to start the vaccination drive by getting himself vaccinated first so that there is no doubt in the minds of people of the state,” Lallu told media persons commenting on the vaccination drive from Saturday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Congress leader Manish Tewari had raised safety issues with one of the two vaccines approved by the Centre saying that Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’ was licensed by the government for emergency use.
“But now the government is saying that the recipient won’t be able to pick and chose the vaccine being administered. When phase 3 trials of Covaxin are not complete, it raises various concerns on its efficacy,” he had said.
The former Union minister further said that the government should not roll out Covaxin till its efficacy and reliability was completely proven and phase 3 trials were over.
“The government should act in a manner whereby there is complete confidence in people. You can’t use rollout as a phase 3 trial, Indians are not guinea pigs,” Tewari had said.
Earlier, former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had said that he would not get the shot as the vaccine was manufactured by the BJP. Another SP leader even said that the vaccine may make people ‘impotent’.
Across the border in Bihar, RJD’s Tej Pratap Yadav recently said that he would get the vaccination only after the Prime Minister was given the shot.
On its part, the government has been repeatedly clarifying that the vaccines were safe and people should not have any doubts on that score.
The Centre has approved two vaccines - Covishield of Oxford AstraZeneca and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech. From Saturday, a vaccination drive is set to start across the country.
In the first stage, healthcare and frontline workers will be vaccinated and later priority would be attached to people beyond 50 years of age. The under-50 year population groups with co-morbidities, numbering around 27 crore would then be administered the shots.