In the wake of the alleged health complications following the administration of COVID-19 vaccine in India, a group of public health experts have written a letter to the Union health ministry demanding an investigation into the cause of deaths.

The group of 29 experts from diverse fields such as public health, ethics, medicine, law and journalism wrote the letter to Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on March 16 saying “… at least 65 deaths have occurred following vaccination for COVID-19 since the vaccination campaign started on January 16.” Officially, the National AEFI (adverse events following immunization) Committee has put only a couple of deaths’ investigations in the public domain. So far, no case of serious AEFI including death has been attributed to the vaccine, the letter said.

Findings of AEFI investigations, including cause of death by clinical diagnosis, autopsy findings, and transparency in the data— are among a few key points the experts say must be put in the public domain.

The letter was also addressed to BG Somani, drugs controller general of India; VK Paul, NITI Aayog member; Renu Swarup, secretary, department of biotechnology; and NK Arora, member, national task force on COVID-19.

In India, Covishield and Covaxin were officially approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for immunisation against the COVID-19. The experts also opine that the government is responsible for ensuring safety of all vaccines and particularly those administered through a government-operated programme.

“Without complete information and doubts arising in a situation where the vaccination programme is already floundering, the situation is expected to get worse. The vaccine programme owes people complete information,” Yogesh Jain, public health physician, based in Chhattisgarh, and one of the experts who have written to the officials, told Gaon Connection.

“At this moment it is of utmost importance to build faith among people in what we are doing. Unless there is transparency about vaccination, people are likely to become sceptical,” he added.

It is not the first time the doctors and public health experts have written to the health ministry. On January 31, a similar letter was written to the ministry, expressing concerns about the lack of information on the investigations of deaths following COVID-19 vaccination.

Meanwhile, as the vaccination drive is expanded to include people over 60 years of age and people above 45 years of age with specified morbidities, it is all the more important to investigate any possibilities of the COVID-19 vaccines triggering serious AEFI in people with certain medical conditions, who are the very people in need of vaccination, the letter underlined.

As of 9 am on March 17, total doses of vaccine administered in India stands at 35.1 million. Of these, 13.8 million doses are administered to people over 60 years of age and people aged 45-59 with comorbidities. “They are being administered the COVID-19 vaccines daily in the confidence that it will protect them against severe disease and death,” the letter added.

The experts also demanded that people also owed medical care, and compensation for harm suffered post-vaccination, and stated that the government has not met these obligations.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has confirmed that COVID-19 cases are on the rise, with nearly 43 per cent week-on-week increase in new cases, and nearly 37 per cent week-on-week increase in new deaths.

At 28,902, the highest number of cases was reported on March 16, this year. So far, 0.159 million people have lost their lives to the virus in the country, the total COVID-19 case load stands at 11.4 million.