BREAKING : Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea For Disclosure Of Clinical Trial & Efficacy Data Of COVID Vaccines; Refuses To Halt Compulsory Vaccination Mandate

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) seeking public disclosure of clinical trial data and post vaccination efficacy data of COVID vaccines, as is required by International medical norms, and to stop the coercive mandate issued by various governments for vaccination.The Court issued notice to the Union of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Drug Controller of India and vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech Ltd and Serum Institute of India, returnable within 4 weeks.A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose was hearing a petition filed by Dr Jacob Puliyel, a former member of National Technical Advisory Group of Immunization.Court-room exchangeThe bench told the petitioner's counsel Advocate Prashant Bhushan that the petition raised some "relevant points" and said that it appreciated the petitioner's concerns about need for transparency in vaccine efficacy date. However, the bench expressed a concern whether an inquiry into vaccination process at this stage with throw doubts into the minds of over 50 crores of people who have taken vaccination and will add to vaccine hesitancy.Clarifying that the petition was not an "anti-vaccine petition", Advocate Bhushan said that all that he was was seeking was disclosure of the clinical trial and post-vaccination date, as is required by the rules framed by the ICMR itself."It is first time in the history of India that Emergency Use Authorization has been given for vaccine without full clinical trial. The minimum I am asking is disclosure and transparency. Their own rules say this", he said.Bhushan said that the clinical trials require to be published by the Helsinki declaration, which has been adopted by ICMR and the the WHO."I'm not saying that Emergency Use Authorization cannot be given. I'm saying that the data needs to be put out. And the post-vaccination data needs to be put out. I'm not asking for vaccination to be halted", Bhushan submitted."Yes, you are not asking for vaccination to be stopped. What we are thinking is if it will create doubts among people and lead to hesitancy", Justice Rao commented."It is when you don't have transparency that people will hesitate", Bhushan replied. Won't pass any orders against vaccination now, says the benchBhushan also submitted that various governments have issued mandates for compulsory vaccination saying services will be denied to persons who have not taken vaccination. He referred to the judgments in Aruna Shaunbag and Common Cause cases, which recognized the legality of passive euthanasia and living wills.However, the bench asked if personal autonomy can be pressed against a public health interest. It commented that those judgments were rendered in a different context and may not be applicable in a situation of pandemic emergency."You are pressing personal autonomy against public interest. It is said unless everyone is vaccinated, nobody is safe", Justice Rao observed.Bhushan said that this is one of the most important PILs he has ever filed, and that the same has been done with considerable thought and research. He referred to the judgments passed by the High Courts of Gauhati and Meghalaya against forced vaccinations and denial of services to those who have not taken vaccines."We appreciate your concerns. We appreciate your concern that they have to reveal the entire data on adverse effects. But we have to to see that the situation is very grave. We are still not out of it. We still have 4 lakh cases. Our concern is that if any inquiry at this stage will throw doubts on the efficacy", Justice Rao said.Bhushan replied by saying that transparency will not militate against public interest and will only help reduce hesitancy."We appreciate that you have raised some seminal issues. But we are trying to open our mind to the larger public health issue",Justice Rao said.Though Bhushan requested for an interim relief against compulsory vaccination mandate, the bench declined, saying that it does not want to pass any such orders at this juncture."Let the vaccination go on and we don't want to stop this. We will examine your points", Justice Rao said. "Once we entertain this petition it should not send a signal that we do not trust the efficacy of these vaccines", Justice Rao remarked during the hearing.After the bench issued notice, the bench and Bhushan indulged in a bit of conversation about vaccination programs across the globe.Bhushan said : "In 1976, the US embarked on a universal vaccination programme for swine flu and at that time it was found that people getting vaccinated develop serious neurological problems. 34 million people in the US, which was 15% of the population, were found to have developed serious neurological symptoms and it was found that this fact was kept hidden. As a consequence entire vaccination had to be stopped"About the petitionThe plea was filed seeking directions to make public the segregated data of the ...

BREAKING : Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea For Disclosure Of Clinical Trial & Efficacy Data Of COVID Vaccines; Refuses To Halt Compulsory Vaccination Mandate

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