Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar uses Pfizer CEO’s video to target Congress

NEW DELHI: Days after Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla faced questions over the efficacy of the company’s vaccines, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday hit out at senior Congress functionaries Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, claiming that they kept pushing the case for foreign vaccines in India during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chandrasekar also shared a video of Bourla at Davos in which he is ambushed with questions about the efficacy of the global pharma giant’s Covid-19 vaccine by two reporters.

The minister claimed that Pfizer tried to bully India into accepting conditions of indemnity. “Just to remind all Indians that Pfizer tried to bully the Govt of India into accepting conditions of indemnity. And Cong trio of Rahul, Chidambaram n Jairam Ramesh kept pushing foreign vaccines during Covid,” he tweeted.

According to the indemnity clause, the company could not be held responsible or prosecuted under Indian law in case of any severe side-effect or even death on taking their vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine is not available in the country. India ran its massive vaccination campaign against Covid-19 with two key vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin. Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India while Covaxin is manufactured by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

In the viral video, Bourla is seen being ambushed by two reporters. “Mr Bourla, can I ask you – when did you know the vaccines did not stop transmission? How long did you know that before saying it publicly?" one of them asks. Bourla looked uncomfortable and avoided answering their questions. Another reporter asked Bourla about the alleged adverse effects of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.