Amid Erectile Dysfunction Fears, India Claims COVID Vaccine Is "110% Safe"
Experts in India are attempting to quell rumors that two newly-approved vaccines can trigger erectile dysfunction in men, insisting the remedies are more than 100% safe, according to RT News.
On Sunday, India formally approved the emergency use of vaccines developed by Oxford–Astra Zeneca and a domestic firm named Bharat Biotech.
India plans to inoculate upwards of 300 million people this year, but rumors are already circulating in the country that the vaccines could cause erectile dysfunction and also be dangerous to health.
The head of India's Samajwadi (Socialist) Party, Ashutosh Sinha, made things worse by saying he was very concerned about the vaccines, indicating they "might contain something which can cause harm."
Sinha said there's a theory going around that the vaccines could be used to "kill/decrease the population" or cause erectile dysfunction.
Vaccine rumors sparked by politicians were so troubling that the country's Drug Controller, Dr. Venugopal G. Somani, had to come out and reassure the public that vaccines are, in, fact, safe.
Somani said the health agency would "never approve anything if there is even the slightest safety concern."
He reassured the public that the vaccines are "110 percent safe."
"These vaccines are 110% safe," says Dr VG Somani, Drug Controller General of India #covidvaccine pic.twitter.com/YulbJf2oZD
— NDTV (@ndtv) January 3, 2021
Somani's overly optimistic statement about vaccine safety is undoubtedly a red flag. Saif Khalid, a reporter for Al Jazeera, tweeted:
"Only in India, the COVID vaccine is 110% safe."
Only in India, the COVID vaccine is 110% safe. https://t.co/6qrbN8VM60
— Saif Khalid (@msaifkhalid) January 3, 2021
"I'd be skeptical of any regulator that claims it is 110/100 safe. Why? Exaggeration. How can you have 110 out of 100? Scientific bodies should use scientific, not a political language," Pakistani journalist and talk show host Farrukh K. Pitafi said.
The big question is how many Indians are actually going to opt-in for COVID-19 vaccines?
On the other side of the world, there's a significant glitch unfolding in Europe as some hospital staff refuse to take the vaccine because they don't trust it.
We noted weeks ago that vaccine mistrust is growing in the US as hospital workers turn down the vaccine.
Despite certain government officials' insistence that there's absolutely no reason to question the efficacy of the vaccine - the WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan recently said there is "no evidence to be confident shots prevent transmission" and that people who receive the vaccine should continue wearing masks and following all social distancing and travel guidelines.
In short, as we noted previously, nobody wants to be a guinea pig, and months or years from now developing some sort of illness because of the vaccine.
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