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PIL for full data on Covid-19 from China to develop vaccine
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 6/3/2020 12:49:57 AM
NEW DELHI, Jun 2: The Supreme Court was approached on Tuesday with a PIL (public interest litigation) for direction to the Centre to seek full data on COVID-19 from China to help in developing an effective antidote to the deadly virus that has claimed more than 3.77 lakh lives across the world.
“This knowledge is necessary to develop an effective vaccine for coronavirus including its various mutations. It is also necessary to study as to how the virus jumped species and affected human population. The study of ground zero is also imperative to understand the cause of the spread of the virus and develop effective ways to prevent the spread of similar diseases in the future,” the petition submitted.
COVID19 can potentially wipe out the human race if it was not contained, says 'Doctors for You,' an NGO working in medical field, noting that the second wave of the pandemic has already hit some countries.
The PIL said considering the deadly nature of COVID-19 for those with underlying medical conditions and the fact that it was likely to affect almost 70 per cent of the entire population in due course, assessing reports from ground zero (Wuhan) was important.
While rest of the world has been hit badly by the pandemic, China successfully managed to control and restrict the virus to Wuhan, allowing the authorities to reopen the wet markets based on certain statistics and indicators, it said.
It said India should ask China to share information on epidemiology, evolution of the virus as also full clinical and other data with relevant indicators.
Maintaining that it was not for blame game, the petitioner said diplomatic channels should be used to get information on the RNA sequence of various strains and mutations found by China in the vicinity of Wuhan—the place COVID-19 reportedly originated from.
WHO should be probed and called out by India for delay in notifying the global community of the severity of COVID-19 and declaring it as a pandemic, the petition added.