Health

The World Health Organisation recently said the death of 66 children in the Gambia was linked to their consuming cough syrups made in India. When officials of the central and State-level drug regulators inspected the … Read moreDon’t Just Fix Prices, Treat Drug Regulation as Basic Public Good: Health Expert on Cough Syrup Deaths

With more than 3,400 cases (22 June), the recent monkeypox outbreak in Europe and North America has become international news. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reacted by monitoring the progress of monkeypox globally, issuing … Read moreWill Monkeypox Outbreak Replay AIDS and Covid-19 Script?

The Indian government’s refusal to consider the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates of excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic years and insisting that only India’s Civil Registration System should be used for COVID-19 deaths makes … Read moreWHO Report on COVID-19 Excess Deaths: Modi Government’s Attempt to Shoot the Messenger

OMICRON, a new SARS-CoV-2 strain, first detected in the Gauteng province of South Africa, has been acknowledged by WHO as a “variant of concern”. Already, cases have been reported from other countries, making clear that … Read moreNot Omicron but the Greed of Capital Threatens the World

THE Covid-19 pandemic shows no sign of slowing down in the country, with figures touching 2,75,000 on April 18th. Hospitals are running out of beds, ICU capacity and even oxygen. Consequently, the death toll is … Read moreThe Second Covid-19 Wave and Modi Government’s Abdication of Responsibility

WITH an eighth of the world’s population, the rich countries – the US, Canada, UK and the EU – have received more than 50 per cent of the world’s vaccine doses. The US alone has … Read moreThe West is Practicing Vaccine Apartheid At a Global Level

THE recent Quad declaration of the US, India, Japan and Australia has not foregrounded the military axis of their meeting but stressed more on the vaccine thrust against the Covid-19 pandemic. With the threat of … Read moreVaccine Wars, the ASEAN and the Quad

THE world seems to have turned topsy-turvy when the undisputed voices of global capital start talking about the virtues of “cooperation” among nations and “universal vaccination” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The International Monetary … Read moreVaccine Nationalism

THE drug regulator’s hurried emergency clearance to Bharat Bio-tech’s Covaxin in a clinical trial mode has been followed by the government making it integral to its mass vaccination drive. It has bought 1.1 crore doses … Read moreForced Consent and no Transparency Can Create a Backlash Against Vaccines

IT is disturbing the way the Indian government and the regulatory authorities have handled the emergency use for vaccines for Covid-19. It started with the emergency use being granted to Oxford-AstraZeneca-Serum Institute’s (Oxford-SII) Covidshield vaccine, … Read morePseudo-Nationalism Trumps Science in Vaccine Clearance

SIX vaccines for Covid-19 have either released, or likely to release within a few weeks of their figures of vaccine efficacy, or how effective their vaccines are. Those who get the initial green signal from … Read moreVaccine Rollout Battle: First Past the Post May Win Major Market Share

THE scientific community has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in a way that would have been thought impossible earlier. Within only 12 months, we are now likely to have a set of vaccines for Covid-19. … Read moreSome Good News on the Vaccine Front but Challenges Remain