Doctors of one of Delhi’s biggest hospital demand Covishield over Covaxin

The Residents’ Doctors Association of Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, one of the largest government healthcare facility providers in Delhi, has expressed its concern over the administration of Covaxin.

While writing to the hospital administration, the office bearers of RDA has said, “We are the present members of our RDA RML hospital. We have come to know that the covid vaccination drive is being conducted by the hospital today. COVAXIN manufactured by Bharat Biotech is being preferred over COVISHIELD manufactured by Serum Institute in our hospital.”

The letter added further, ”We would like to bring to your notice that the residents are a bit apprehensive about the lack of complete trial in case of COVAXIN and might not participate in huge numbers thus defeating the purpose of vaccination.”

The RDA has requested the hospital administration to vaccinate them with COVISHIELD which has completed all stages of the trial before its rollout.

The Drug Controller General of India gave its approval to two vaccines on January 3 – Covishield developed by the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech.

A lot of experts raised their apprehensions in the manner the approval was granted to Covaxine. They allege that the clinical trial of Phase III of Covaxine is still on and there is no data on its safety and efficacy available in the public domain.

However, the Health Minister and other senior government experts have dismissed all these allegations and said that Covaxin is safe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also cautioned people while launching the vaccination drive that they should not be misled by rumours and propaganda.