Top Medical Body Slams Study On Covaxin Safety, Side-Effects, Wants Apology

ICMR chief Rajiv Bahl has formally written to the researchers criticizing the research paper entitled “Long-Term Safety Analysis of the BBVl52 Coronavirus Vaccine in Adolescents and Adults: Findings from a 1-Year Prospective Study in North India”.

“The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been incorrectly and misleadingly acknowledged in the paper. ICMR is not associated with this study and has not provided any financial or technical support for the research. Further, you have acknowledged ICMR for research support without any prior approval of or intimation to ICMR, which is inappropriate and unacceptable. ICMR cannot be associated with this poorly designed study which purports to present a “safety analysis” of Covaxin,” said Bahl in the letter.

Bahl said the study had no control arm of unvaccinated individuals for comparing the rates of events between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Hence, the reported events in the study cannot be linked or attributed to Covid-19 vaccination, he reasoned.