Vaccine row: Did govt jump gun in booking doctor?
Vishav Bharti
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 5
It is not for the first time when Dr Amar Singh Azad has swum against the stream. If as a paediatrician, he questioned corporate world’s idea of “bottled milk better than mother’s milk” in 1970s, around a decade back he was one of the first experts to tell that how presence of heavy metals in Punjab’s waters have created havoc. For the past two decades, he has been raising concerns over pharmaceutical companies “unnecessarily pushing vaccines”.
On the basis of 27 points, quoting studies from world over, he questioned the government’s MR vaccination campaign and argued that parents had every right to know the adverse effects of the vaccine. He clarified that he had not said a word regarding vaccine creating impotency.
But the government’s reply was an FIR. The doctor, who has two MD degrees was booked for “causing riot”, “spreading rumours” and “obstructing government from carrying out its functions”.
Dr Harish Malhotra, Civil Surgeon, Patiala, complainant against Dr Azad, when asked on having any proof that he was spreading rumours regarding “vaccine creating impotency”, said it was the investigative agencies which would decide, but there was no doubt that Dr Azad was trying to create hindrance in government functioning.
Girl dies in Bathinda
Bathinda: A four-year-old girl, Gurnoor Kaur, of Jai Singh Wala in Bathinda, died on Saturday evening. The girl, a nursery class student at Adarsh School, was administered MR vaccine on Friday. The exact cause of death could not be known as Health Department officials refuse to comment. TNS
