Covishield side-effects: Parents of girl who died allegedly after vaccine to sue Serum Institute of India

PTC Web Desk: After AstraZeneca acknowledged that its Covid-19 vaccine can lead to a rare side effect known as TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome), the parents of a woman vaccinated with Covishield, the Indian variant developed by Serum Institute of India (SII), have decided to take legal action against the Pune-based manufacturer.

The victim, Karunya, died in July 2021 allegedly after receiving the shot, as reported by India Today. Despite the national committee established by the Union Government determining insufficient evidence linking her death to the vaccine, Venugopalan Govindan, the victim’s father, intends to file a writ petition seeking compensation and the establishment of an independent medical board to investigate his daughter’s death.

He flayed AstraZeneca and Serum Institute for their delayed acknowledgment of the vaccine’s side effect, stating that it came too late and following numerous fatalities. He said both companies should have halted vaccine production and distribution when 15 European countries either suspended or restricted its use due to blood clot-related deaths in March 2021, shortly after the vaccine’s rollout. Govindan also expressed his intention to pursue additional legal actions if satisfactory remedies are not obtained from the current case.

AstraZeneca’s admission of the vaccine’s side effect came in response to a lawsuit filed against the company in the UK by Jamie Scott, who suffered permanent brain damage after receiving the vaccine in April 2021.