Maldivians died from taking the vaccine prepared for the Covid-19 disease that spread globally five years ago, Machchangoalhi Uthuru MP Ibrahim Mohamed said yesterday, calling for an investigation and action against any official found to have been negligent.
Debating a health bill at yesterday’s sitting of Parliament, Ibrahim said several people died in the Maldives directly from the vaccine. The alleged deaths need to be investigated even if a committee has to be formed for the purpose, he added.
"People who were sold the vaccine at high prices and the families that died after taking the vaccine, in order to ensure their rights, those culpable in this needs to be investigated, even by forming a committee, and action should be taken," Ibrahim said. "Many families are still grieving because Covid deaths have not been properly investigated."
Ibrahim said further in relation to the Covid vaccine that people who endangered lives should be investigated and punished.
"Investigating people who have in the past committed acts that, as I said, could have endangered lives, and if it requires punishment, then punishing and holding them accountable, and if it doesn't require punishment, then clearing them of the allegations against them as well is truly important," he said.
The Pfizer vaccine and the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca were used in the Maldives against Covid-19. According to some media reports, the company that developed the Covishield vaccine has admitted in court that it causes blood clots.
More than seven million people died from Covid globally. The death toll in the Maldives was 316 people. A total of 186,694 people were infected with Covid in the Maldives. Covid was one of the most dangerous diseases that spread in the world in recent times. The disease was found in China. Despite lack of certainty so far, the Covid virus is expected to have been transmitted to a human from a bat.
Speaking during the debate yesterday on government-sponsored amendments to the health profession law, MP Ibrahim from the ruling People's National Congress (PNC) also expressed concern over "the beauty of women being blemished" by eating fruits and vegetables with growth hormones.
"If you put poison in a bottle and ask anyone to eat it, it would be very difficult to accept. However, things in the form of vegetables that have been produced with various poisonous substances or inappropriate growth hormones, when they're in vegetables and fruits and they're eaten, as a result of that, hair that should not be seen in the faces of women at a very young age appearing and their beauty being blemished is something that's seen," Ibrahim said.
