Adar Poonawalla leaves India after alleged threats from powerful people

Serum Institute of India's (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla in an interview to The Times, UK,  alleged that he had been receiving threats in India and said that he and his family have left the country and were in London after unprecedented “pressure and aggression” over the demands for the COVID-19 vaccine.

He confessed that he was getting aggressive phone calls from the 'most powerful,' including chief ministers, business tycoons and others, demanding instant supplies of Covishield.

Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute is among the two vaccines that are currently being used in the mass vaccination drive in India.

Referring to the phone calls, Poonawalla said "Threats is an understatement. The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them," Poonawalla said in the interview.

Poonawalla said, "They are saying if you don't give us the vaccine it's not going to be good. It's not foul language, it's the tone. It's the implication of what they might do if I don't comply. It's coming over and basically surrounding the place and not letting us do anything unless we give in to their demands."

According to India Today anchor Rahul Kanwal some Shiv Sena people showed up at Serum Institute's factory, threatening Poonawalla. He said, "He (Adar Poonawalla) sent me some videos of some Shiv Sena locals showing up outside his factory, giving him the choicest of gaalis (abuses) and saying ‘humko pehle do’ (give us the vaccines first) and this is bizarre."

Asked about his views on the Kumbh Mela and the Assembly elections being the reasons behind the rise, Poonawalla said, "If I give you the right answer, or any answer, my head would be chopped off" as the topic is too sensitive.

Soon after the interview, Poonawalla took to Twitter to state that he had a successful meeting for the production of vaccines with stakeholders in the UK and will return to India soon.

The SII chief also said that he was planning the production of the vaccine in other countries amid struggles to meet supply commitments.

Poonawalla’s comments came after the Central government recently ramped up his security cover to ‘Y’ category across India.

Amid the second wave, India on Saturday reported 3.92 lakh new COVID-19 cases. On Friday, India had reported it's highest single-day spike with 4.01 lakh new COVID-19 cases.

Source: indiatoday.in, thequint.com, timesofindia.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma