Health Ministry Calls Media Report On Covid-19 Vaccine Side Effects 'Ill-Informed And Erroneous'

The government on Tuesday (17 January) termed as "ill informed and erroneous" a media report claiming admission of ‘multiple side-effects of COVID19 vaccines' by ICMR and CDSCO officials.

A recent media report in The Economic Times has claimed that ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organization) have admitted to ‘multiple side-effects of COVID19 vaccines’ in response to a RTI query.

The report states that ICMR and CDSCO officials have cited a plethora of ramifications arising out of all the COVID vaccines, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said that the news report is "ill-informed and provides erroneous information".

In line with the policy of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of proactive disclosure aligned with global scientific evidence in public domain, ICMR provided responses to questions in the RTI related to advantages and disadvantages of COVID19 vaccines, the ministry said.

"The ICMR response simply provided links of reputed websites of World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India where compiled global evidence on various COVID-19 vaccines is available," the ministry said.

As is the case with all other vaccines, those who get vaccinated with different COVID-19 vaccines may experience mild symptoms like injection site tenderness, pain, headache, fatigue, myalgia, malaise, pyrexia, chills, arthralgia etc, the ministry said.

Rarely, few individuals may experience severe adverse events depending upon certain pre-disposing conditions, it added.

Global research studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccination has helped in reducing severity of disease by preventing hospitalisations and deaths due to COVID-19 and benefits of the vaccines overwhelmingly outweigh any adverse effects.

In India, NTAGI (National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) has periodically reviewed the benefits and side effects of Covid-19 vaccines used in India and has endorsed the above findings, the ministry said.

In addition, CDSCO stated as part of the RTI reply that the list of COVID vaccines approved by the national Drugs Controller General is available on the website (cdsco.gov.in).

CDSCO also informed that they have no other information with them on the subject.

Further, the ministry said that ICMR has not commented on any of the documents, links of which have been shared as part of the RTI response.