CRITICISING politics over coronavirus vaccines and trying to allay fears regarding the same, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that he had been under a lot of “pressure” but left the call on when to introduce the vaccines to scientists.
In a televised interaction with beneficiaries and vaccinators of the Covid vaccines in his constituency Varanasi, he also urged people to believe health workers and doctors, and suggested that hospitals initiate “competitions in vaccination” so that the country could move quickly to the second phase of the drive.
Without referring to questions raised regarding emergency use clearance to the indigenously developed Covaxin despite some missing data regarding trials, Modi said at the 30-minute video-conference, “Mere pe bada pressure aata tha, vaccine kyon nahin aati hai, vaccine kab lagaoge? Rajneeti mein idhar ki bhi baat hoti hai, udhar ki bhi baat hoti hai. Main ek hi baat karta tha, ki vaigyanik jo kahenge wahi karenge, yeh hum political logon ka kaam nahin hai (There was a lot of pressure on me, as to why the vaccine is not coming, when it would be administered. In politics, people say all kinds of things, but I would say only one thing, that we would do what the scientists say, it is not something for us politicians to decide).”