Chennai: Trashing politics over coronavirus vaccines and trying to allay fears, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the call on launching them was taken by scientists.
In a televised interaction with health workers in Varanasi, Modi referred indirectly to criticism over the emergency-use clearance given to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
He said all sorts of things are said in politics but he went by the scientists’ decision. Politicians talk about ‘this and that’.
“I gave only one reply that I will do what the scientists say, this is not the job of us politicians to decide,” he added.
“And when the go-ahead from the scientists came, we had to decide from where to start. Then we decided to start from health workers who remain in contact with patients constantly,” Modi said through video conference. “Some people are angry with my decision as well,” he said.
“When doctors and health workers give a clean chit to the vaccine, it sends a very strong message among people about the efficacy of the shots,” the Prime Minister told the gathering of health workers who had got themselves inoculated or had administered the vaccine to others.
“For any vaccine, there is hard work of scientists involved and it is a scientific process. You must have heard that I faced so much pressure on why the vaccine was not coming soon,” he said, indicating that he decided to wait for the go-ahead from the scientists.