The parents of a woman who passed away after receiving the Covishield vaccine are contemplating legal action against the Serum Institute of India (SII) following AstraZeneca's acknowledgment in court that its vaccine can result in rare side effects. Covishield, a product of AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was manufactured by the Serum Institute and widely distributed in India.
Venugopalan Govindan's daughter, Karunya, tragically died in July 2021 after receiving the Covishield vaccine. Despite this, a national committee formed by the government concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to attribute her death to the vaccine.
Previously, some parents had filed lawsuits alleging that the vaccine led to the deaths of their children, targeting the government and the agencies responsible for approving the vaccine. However, the Serum Institute was not named in these cases.
This recent development follows AstraZeneca's admission in court documents in the UK that its vaccine could lead to a rare side effect involving blood clotting and low platelet count.
The lawsuit in the UK was initiated by Jamie Scott, who suffered a permanent brain injury after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021. As a result of safety concerns, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is no longer administered in the UK. Despite its proven effectiveness against COVID-19, the emergence of rare side effects has prompted regulatory scrutiny and legal action.
