Parents to sue SII alleging Covishield caused daughter's death

Parents of a girl who died after taking Covishield, an Indian variant of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, have decided to move the Supreme Court against the Serum Institute of India (SII). SII, the Pune-based firm, developed and manufactured Covishield in the country.

This comes days after the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine can cause a rare side effect TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome).

As per an India Today report, the victim, Karunya, died in July 2021 after taking a Covishield shot. However, the national committee set up by the Union government reported that there is insufficient evidence to link the death of the girl to the vaccine.

The case, however, came to the limelight after AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish firm, admitted the side effects of the vaccine in response to a lawsuit in a UK court.

Hindustan Times reported the father of the victim Venugopalan Govindan will move a writ petition to the court seeking compensation and the appointment of an independent medical board to inquire into his daughter's death.

Govindan said that the admission by the AstraZeneca comes too late and after many lives were already lost.

He said "A few months after the vaccine was administered, in March 2021, 15 European countries suspended or age-limited the vaccine after deaths or blood clots cases were reported. AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India should have stopped vaccine manufacturing."

Govindan has made it his mission to file more cases if sufficient remedies were not taken from the present case. "We will file more cases against the perpetrators who are responsible for the deaths of our children."

On May 1, a plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking constitution of a medical expert panel under the supervision of a retired apex court judge to examine any possible side effects and risk factors of the Covishield vaccine.

It claimed that UK-headquartered pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has said that its vaccine against COVID-19, which was made under licence in India as Covishield, could cause low platelet counts and formation of blood clots in "very rare" cases.

The application, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, also sought a direction to the Centre to compensate those who are severely disabled or have died because of any side effects of the vaccine administered to them during Covid.