The airwaves have recently been inundated by headlines, which naturally are bound to scare prospective beneficiaries of the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII). India’s vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is heavily dependent on the Covishield vaccine. As such, when news media organisations decide to over-report on a miniscule subject only to grab more eyeballs, make no mistake, they are derailing the country’s vaccination campaign for mere monetary gains. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, being sold in India as ‘Covishield’ has been found to cause blood clotting in a miniscule number of European participants.
That was reason enough for the media to go overboard in reporting about incidents of thromboembolic events in recipients of the vaccine. In countries like the United Kingdom, such events of blood clotting were reported in four recipients per million beneficiaries of the vaccine. In Germany, the number stands at 10 thromboembolic events per million beneficiaries. In India, the number is a miniscule 0.61 per million recipients of the Covishield vaccine. Needless to say, the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks by leaps and bounds.
Yet, Indian media has gone on a mad spree of reporting the news of Covishield causing blood clotting in its recipients. Thromboembolism is defined as the formation in a blood vessel of a clot that breaks loose and is carried by the bloodstream to plug another vessel. The clot may plug a vessel in the lungs (pulmonary embolism), brain (stroke), gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, or leg.
Even India’s Health Ministry has said that that bleeding and clotting cases following Covid vaccination in India are ‘miniscule’ and in line with the expected number of diagnoses of these conditions in the country. It is important to note that studies have found South and Southeast Asians to be at a 70% less risk of experiencing thromboembolic events compared to people of European descent.
According to the Health Ministry, since the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 was initiated, more than 23,000 adverse events were reported through the CO-WIN platform. Of these, only 700 cases (of the 9.3 cases /million doses administered) were reported to be serious and severe in nature. The press release also stated, “The AEFI Committee has completed an in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events, of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic.”
The Health Ministry has put in place a robust mechanism to account for any thromboembolic events in beneficiaries of the Covishield jab. As such, there is no reason for Indian mainstream media to lose its mind and spread panic among the people against a vaccine. Already, India’s vaccination drive is going through an unmotivating phase. The last thing we as a nation require is for the media to jump in and give rise to another wave of vaccine hesitancy.