No public figure should undermine the importance of getting protection against the virus

In what may be seen as just deserts for him, Twitter blocked Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan’s account for 12 hours after flagging his tweets on COVID-19 vaccines. The activist, in consonance with his earlier stand, had declared that though he not anti-vaccine per se, he was against the promotion of universal vaccination. He tweeted: “For the record, I have not taken, nor do I intend to take, any COVID vaccine.” To be fair to him, however, he did clarify that he was shocked to see the attempts to censor any contrarian views. Another factually correct point he made was as to how Covaxin was denied emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the US, besides being excluded from the WHO’s emergency use list. His remarks created a flutter on social media when he opined that healthy young people had a higher chance of dying due to COVID-19 vaccines as compared to deaths due to effects of the disease itself. While many of the Twitter regulars and health experts spoke out against Bhushan’s statement, the micro-blogging site also labeled the tweet as “misleading”.

A case in point: Health economist Rijo M John tweeted, “I have huge respect for @pbhushan1. But I’d strongly advise him not to make statements…which can only hinder India’s struggle to vaccinate even the most vulnerable. This is the nth time he is making such irresponsible statements on #COVID19vaccines.” While the lawyer-activist is certainly entitled to his views, his statement does lend itself to the issue of assumption and speculation, bordering even on scare-mongering. At a time when there is no conclusive proof that the injections or other forms of anti-COVID drugs speed up the failing health of a person infected by the virus, no public figure having influence over a cross-section of society should indulge in such supposition. Making the matter doubly serious is the existing issue of vaccine hesitancy which the nation’s people, especially in the hinterland, have been practising for various reasons. Also, when there is no foolproof and medically certified panacea available to the curse of the Novel Coronavirus afflicting the world today, whatever we have — including vaccination, personal hygiene and physical distancing — is the only hope for humankind. Let’s run with what we have today as a means of shielding ourselves against the virus, and hope that we manage to outpace it.