Couple alleges daughter died after taking Covishield, to go to court against AstraZeneca

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CHANDIGARH: A couple has alleged that their daughter died after taking Covishield and they planned to go to court against AstraZeneca.

Venugopalan Govindan who lost his 20-year-old daughter Karunya in 2021 said the admission was “too late” and came after “so many lives have been lost”.

In a post he claimed that his daughter Karunya was vaccinated on June 8 and died on July 10.

In a post on X, Venugopalan Govindan wrote: “I missed to tell Teena that today (May 1st) is Karunya’s birthday and she was the first wedding anniversary gift to me and my wife from the heavens. Perhaps due to editorial/space constraints a few core points I gave missed to make it to print. I can share it here without any such constraints even though it will reach only a fraction of the readership of ET. The text I gave. “This admission of AZ is too late and has come after so many lives have been lost. As a responsible manufacturer, AstraZeneca, and its Indian Manufacturer, Serum Institute should have stopped the manufacture and supply of these vaccines when 15 European countries either suspended or age limited these vaccines due to the deaths from blood clots that happened in 2021 March, within couple of months of the rollout of the vaccine itself.

“The manufacturer Serum Institute of India, the Government who advertised these vaccines throughout the nation at huge expense to exchequer as ‘safe and effective’ without sufficient data (and when data emerged about the adverse events from around the world, they chose not to stop the rollout or at least sensitise people and medical fraternity about it), the regulatory bodies that approved it and subsequently didn’t intervene to stop it when data emerged about the dangers, are all culpable in the death of my daughter and countless others who have died after taking this so called vaccine.

“Both Government and Serum Institute knew at least in Februray 2021 itself when Mr Dilip Lunawat contacted them multiple times and they were aware of her death on March 1st from the complications from Vaccine.

“If the Govt/SII/Monitoring authorities had acted with alacrity as the European Govts did, neither my child’s death nor any of the other 7 victims who died later in that year would have died. The grieving parents are fighting for justice in various courts and for reasons best known to our judicial system we are not getting a hearing for our cases.

“The fundamental principles of bodily autonomy, full disclosure and informed consent have all been violated with impunity. There has been failure to discharge their duties, either due to criminal intentions or due to negligence from the Manufacturer, the Government at policy making side or expert bodies advising the Govt.

“We will pursue our current cases till the end. If sufficient remedies aren’t obtained, for the sake of justice and to prevent recurrence of this atrocity that was perpetrated in the name of public health, we will file fresh cases against any and all of those perpetrators because of whose actions the deaths of our children ensued. Eight of the victims’ families have connected and I am echoing the common sentiments of all of us.”