Government of India hiding information on vaccines

 

Vaccination biggest weapon in fight against COVID-19: PM Modi

The Prime Minister, while interacting with doctors across the country through video conferencing on the COVID-19 issue and vaccination progress, appreciated the doctors, medical and para-medical staff for their invaluable service towards the country during the coronavirus pandemic.

economictimes.indiatimes.com

As per PM Modi, Vaccine and transparency both are key weapons to fight the pandemic. But his own government remains opaque on the vaccine governance. Here is how.

RTI Application by Me

RTI Reply by ministry

Interestingly the information sought to be me is the same which is shared by the VK paul ( NITI Member and Head of vaccine task force) in Media. Here is it

18 May, Indian Express

"We have contacted the manufacturers and sought information on availability of vaccine for August-December… In this period, 216 crore doses would become available in India." VK paul

27 May Livemint

"The central government has engaged in multiple rounds of discussions with foreign vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, J&J and Moderna from 2020", said Vinod Paul, Niti Aayog member (health) on Thursday.

What I sought is the information/data on the basis VK paul did press conferences and interviews. VK Paul said that vaccine manufactures submitted data to the government and exactly the same I sought but it has been denied.

When Data is denied, the only option that remains is to speculate. I like to put two facts to readers.

 

India at the peack of covid cases

8th May was the date when India faced the peak of the cases. It was the days when citizens searching not just remdisivir but also vaccines to get immunized against the horrible 2nd wave. On other hand, the Government facing an acute shortage of vaccines. So, To placate the anger of the citizen, Government holds the press conference on 13th May and gives lolipop to the media about the 216 crore vaccine doses by august December 2021. If the government has actually such data, the government should put the same in a public forum as PM modi himself believes that transparency is key to fight pandemics.

The moral of the story is that - Government led by the PM Modi used the PR exercise to combat Covid19 rather than transparency and it failed miserably.

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I have to file 1st appeal of the RTI mention above. Need help regarding that. If you are/know from the law/RTI matter/health sector, please message me on twitter @suchak. Thanks :)