Prominent Indian lawyer and activist, Prashant Bhushan, was called out on Twitter for posting misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

By Tej Kumar

Twitter recently tagged a tweet by Indian lawyer and activist, Prashant Bhushan as ‘misleading’. You can view an archived version of the tweet here.

The post made three misleading claims:

Claim: Healthy young will hardly suffer from severe effects or die due to COVID-19.

Fact: As per the data available with the Indian Health Ministry, there has been a three-percentage point increase in COVID-19 cases, among persons aged 21 to 50 years in the second wave as compared to the first wave. In other words, data proves that the young are also susceptible to the virus.

Claim: Young people have high chances of dying due to COVID vaccines.

Fact: Given that around two-thirds of all health workforce in India are below 40 years of age and vaccination hasn’t led to higher number of deaths in this populace, it’s safe to say that the there is no scientific basis for the claim.

“There is no evidence that vaccination against COVID-19 can cause death in young people, but there’s enough evidence to show that young people may die because of COVID-19 and its new variants. While there are reports of vaccine-related deaths, the numbers are minimal, nothing to be alarmed about,” says Dr. K. Balakrishnan, Professor & Head Dept. of Immunology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu.

Claim: Vaccines may compromise one’s natural immunity.

Fact: There are several scientific studies to prove that vaccines do not weaken one’s natural immunity. Dr. Sunil K. Arora, Professor of Immunology at the Department of Immunopathology and Head Department of Translational & Regenerative Medicine at PGIMER Chandigarh and President for Indian Immunology Society, says, “Vaccines actually boost natural immunity. There’s lots of research happening around COVID vaccines, and till date, we don’t have any data to support the claim that vaccines compromise natural immunity.”

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