KEY STORY
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Bengaluru: The distrust over the veracity of the indigenously-developed Covid-19 vaccine – Covaxin – continues to increase, especially among healthcare workers, who believe they are being used for human trials of the drug.
“The government of India has approved Covishield and Covaxin vaccines. Covishield has at least got an interim analysis report. Covaxin is still in phase-III trials, where the trial is being done on healthcare workers. We condemn this. Healthcare workers should be given a choice of vaccine. We demand that govt should provide a vaccine which has interim analysis,” Dr Dayanand Sagar, president of the Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors, said in a statement.
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The development comes after a 43-year-old health worker in Karnataka died of a massive cardiac arrest on Monday, barely two days after he was administered a Covid-19 vaccine, the state government said.
First of all, taking the vaccine is not mandatory. There is no choice given in selecting a vaccine as Drugs Controller General of India has cleared both Covishield and Covaxin. I humbly appeal to all doctors, citizens to accept Covaxin: Karnataka Minister Dr K Sudhakar https://t.co/wT3LcZoG14 pic.twitter.com/dCuzntYtkn
— ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2021
United diagnosticss
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The deceased, identified as Nagaraju of Ballari district, was a permanent employee of the Health Department. He was vaccinated on January 16 around 1 pm and he was fine till Monday morning.
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“The death is only a coincidence and not related to the vaccine,” said Dr CN Manjunath, Director at the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, an autonomous government institute.
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Manjunath is also a member of the Karnataka’s government Covid-19 technical advisory committee.
“Today morning when he came to work, he complained of chest pain at around 9:30 am and collapsed. He was treated immediately and referred to Jindal Sanjeevani hospital…the highest level of treatment was provided, but he couldn’t be saved,” the health department said in a statement, news agency PTI reported.
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However, no other healthcare worker who received the vaccine from the same vial had any adverse side events.
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Last week, resident doctors at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital requested the medical superintendent to vaccinate them with Covishield.
