The CEO of the Serum Institute Adar Poonawalla the vaccine manufacturer in India said he left the country because of continuous threats against him. In an interview with the Times of London, he said how he went to England to avoid threats from people alleging he’s holding up vaccines.
Poonawalla leads the Serum Institute, the world’s most comprehensive vaccine manufacturer. The COVID-19 situation in India is so dreadful that Poonawalla said people have been throwing threats at him, blaming him for blocking vaccines on purpose.
In an interview with the Times of London mentioned the reason for flying to England to save himself from threats-
Poonawalla said, ‘Threats’ is an understatement. “The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It’s overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can’t understand why anyone else should get it before them, he added. They are saying if you don’t give us the vaccine it’s not going to be good. It’s not foul language. It’s the tone. It’s the implication of what they might do if I don’t comply.”
The Serum Institute is the world’s most extensive vaccine manufacturer, delivering more than 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine every month.
On the occasion of his interview, Poonawalla said he’d stay in England for “an extended time because I don’t want to go back to that situation.
Everything falls on my shoulders, but I can’t do it alone, he added.
Hours after the interview was published, Poonawalla backtracked and wrote on Twitter that he’d return to India in a few days. The news of his departure from India comes as the country experiences deep surges in positive COVID-19 cases”.
via livemint.com
On Saturday, the nation reached a record high of 401,993 new cases of COVID-19 whereas no other country has reached 400,000 daily cases.
Crematoriums across India are flooded with bodies. Patients are dying as hospitals fall out of oxygen. The country had reached more than 300,000 new cases each day for nine consecutive days before beating the 400,000 marks.
A New York Times investigation published this week exposed “mounting evidence” that recommended bodies are being “overlooked or downplayed” by the government.
The situation has grown so critical that people have encircled his company various times and called him a “profiteer” of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad,” Poonawalla said in the interview.
Interview content is taken from- Business Insider India
