Akhilesh Yadav accuses BJP of 'risking the lives' of countrymen with Covishield vaccine

"In the greed for crores of donations, BJP has put crores of lives in danger. BJP has become a 'jan-drohi' (anti-people) party by putting the lives of its own countrymen at risk," Akhilesh Yadav said.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the BJP of risking the lives of its countrymen after UK-based pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca started global withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine, which was provided in India as ‘Covishield’.

"The company that makes the corona vaccine is withdrawing its deadly vaccine from the market on the pretext of excess supply. The angry public is asking the BJP government that how will this dangerous vaccine come back from the bodies of those who have taken it?' Yadav said in a post on X.

AstraZeneca provided its Covid-19 vaccine as Vaxzevria in Europe and in India as 'Covishield' in partnership with Serum Institute of India (SII).

Recently, the company had admitted that its Covid-19 vaccines could, in very rare cases, have the potential to cause a rare side effect called—Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).

"In the greed for crores of donations, BJP has put crores of lives in danger. BJP has become a 'jan-drohi' (anti-people) party by putting the lives of its own countrymen at risk," he said.

According to AstraZeneca, the withdrawal has been initiated due to a surplus of available updated vaccines since the pandemic.

SII said it has stopped the manufacturing and supply of additional doses of Covishield since December 2021 while reiterating that it had disclosed all rare to very rare side-effects, including Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, in the packaging insert in 2021.