Amid the times of coronavirus pandemic, Congress leader Gaurav Pandhi has made an odd revelation. He claimed that the Coronavirus vaccine- Covaxin contains calf serum and linked it to cow slaughter. To support his claims the Mr. Pandhi shared an RTI reply to applicant Vikas Patni.
The RTI reply suggests that newborn calf serum has been used to make the Covid19 vaccine, Covaxin. ‘In order to make the vaccine, a calf less than 20 days old is killed,’ said Congress leader. The RTI reply by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization read, “Newborn calf serum is used in the revival process of Vero cells, which is further used for the production of coronavirus during the manufacturing of Covaxin.”
Gaurav Pandhi, the national coordinator of Digital Communication and Social Media at Congress tweeted the RTI response and claimed that “the Narendra Modi Government admitted that the vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech consists Newborn Calf Serum...which is a portion of clotted blood obtained from less than 20 days young cow-calves, after slaughtering them.” “This is heinous! This information should have been made public before,” said Pandhi.
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In another tweet, Pandi stated that the BJP government should not ‘betray the faith and beliefs of people.” However, he also insisted people get themselves vaccinated as it is the only way to win the battle against coronavirus infection. “Vaccines are the lifeline today and everyone must get vaccinated keeping faiths and beliefs aside,” he added.
The Congress leader’s claims came at a time when the government is trying to pace up the vaccination drive in the country. So far, a large number of the Indian population has been hesitant towards administering the vaccine. People are afraid of vaccine side effects.
However, the government has denied all the claims and clarified that Covaxin does not contain newborn calf serum at all. "There have been some social media posts regarding the composition of the Covaxin vaccine where it has been suggested that it contains the newborn calf serum. Facts have been twisted and misrepresented in these posts," said the Ministry.
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"Newborn Calf Serum is used only for preparation or growth of Vero cells.” These Vero cells, after the growth, are washed with water, with chemicals, many times to make it free from the newborn calf serum. Thereafter, these Vero cells are infected with the coronavirus for viral growth.
"The Vero cells are completely destroyed in the process of viral growth. Thereafter this grown virus is also killed (inactivated) and purified. This killed virus is then used to make the final vaccine, and in the final vaccine formulation no calf serum is used,” clarified the government.