The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his help to stop the misinformation campaign on COVID-19 vaccination and demanding action against Baba Ramdev for his alleged remarks on allopathy and allopathic doctors.
“Misinformation campaign on vaccination by Patanjali owner Ramdev should be stopped. In a recent video he claimed that 10,000 doctors and several people have died despite taking both doses of vaccine. Action under sedition charges should be taken against him,” the two-page letter said.
The letter issued on Wednesday noted that India has lost over 1,000 doctors so far during the pandemic. “None in the first wave could receive the vaccine and the majority who had died in the second wave also couldn’t take their vaccine for various reasons. Now deceitfully attributing that several people have died in spite of two doses of vaccination, is a deliberate move to stall the efforts of vaccination to reach our masses and it needs to be curtailed immediately,” said IMA president Dr.J.A. Jayalal.
He said the doctors are pained to witness the services rendered by nearly 10 lakh of them during this pandemic being ridiculed and the system being called stupid.
“IMA respects, acknowledges and compliments all systems of medicine especially our Indian system of Ayurvedic Medicine, as each system is helping our people differently. We are not against any medicine promoted by the Ministry and are happy to share in most of our public health treatment centres the drugs promoted by the AYUSH Ministry. We opposed certain drugs promoted without the approval of the Ministry as a curative drug.”
The IMA has now requested the PM “to take appropriate action against individuals viciously propagating the message of fear on vaccination and challenging the government of India protocols for treatment for their vested interest in their company products”.
“This in our opinion is a clear-cut case of a sedition case and such persons should be booked immediately without any delay under,” the association said.
