Recent admissions by AstraZeneca regarding potential health risks associated with its COVID-19 vaccine have sparked global alarm. This vaccine, known as Covishield in Bharat, was manufactured under license by the Serum Institute of Bharat.
However, even before these revelations, Bharatiya doctors had expressed concerns about Covishield, citing its purported links to cardiovascular issues such as heart attacks and strokes.
Renowned British-Bharatiya cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a leading voice in advocating for the suspension of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, has raised red flags about Covishield’s safety.
Dr. Malhotra called for a comprehensive safety review of the vaccine, asserting that its rollout in Bharat should have been reconsidered from the outset.
A peer-reviewed research paper published up to June 2021 compared the adverse effects of Covishield with those of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. Shockingly, the analysis revealed that Covishield exhibited a higher prevalence of adverse effects related to heart health compared to Pfizer’s vaccine. This finding underscores the urgency of addressing safety concerns surrounding Covishield.
Furtherly exacerbating worries, post-marketing pharmacovigilance data from the UK revealed a concerning trend. With 800,000 reports of adverse effects recorded after administering nearly 10 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, representing nearly 10% of doses administered, the scale of potential risks became starkly apparent.
Dr. Malhotra’s concerns extend to the discrepancy between the suspension of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the UK and several European countries due to adverse side effects and its continued usage in Bharat.
He emphasizes the need for an immediate suspension of Covishield pending a thorough inquiry into why Bharat diverged from the decisions made by other nations regarding this vaccine.
As scrutiny intensifies over the safety of Covishield, stakeholders in Bharat face mounting pressure to address these concerns transparently and decisively.
The health and well-being of the public demand nothing less than a thorough investigation and, if warranted, swift action to mitigate potential risks associated with this widely administered vaccine.
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