Centre busts Congress propaganda, clarifies myths about COVAXIN

New Delhi, June 16: After Sonia Gandhi led the Congress party shared myths about the COVID vaccine,  the Government of India on Wednesday busted out their Propaganda, and slammed the party for 'twisting and misrepresenting facts on social media'. This comes after Congress leader Gaurav Pandh paddled fake news about a vaccine that Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN contains newborn calf serum obtained after slaughtering 20-days-old calves.

 

 

In a tweet, Pandhi said, “In an RTI response, the Modi Govt has admitted that Covaxin consists Newborn Calf Serum... which is a portion of clotted blood obtained from less than 20 days young cow-calves, after slaughtering them. THIS IS HEINOUS! This information should have been made public before.”

 

 

 

Following this, the Central govt come heavily on congress for peddling propaganda against the central govt and clarified, that 'newborn calf serum' is used only for the preparation and growth of Vero cells. It states, “There have been some social media posts regarding the composition of the COVAXIN vaccine where it has been suggested that COVAXIN vaccine contains the newborn calf serum. Facts have been twisted and misrepresented in these posts.”

 

 

 

 

"Newborn calf serum is used only for the preparation and growth of Vero cells. Serum from bovine and other animals are standard enrichment ingredients used globally for Vero cell growth," the Union Health Ministry said in a statement. It added the facts have been "twisted and misrepresented" in some social media posts.

 

  

Vero cells are used to establish cell lives which help in the production of vaccines. This technique has been used for decades in Polio, Rabies, and Influenza vaccines.

 

 

These Vero cells, after the growth, are washed with water, with chemicals (also technically known as a buffer), many times to make it free from the newborn calf serum. Thereafter, these Vero cells are infected with the coronavirus for viral growth. The Vero cells are destroyed in the process of viral growth. Thereafter this grown virus is also killed (inactivated) and purified. This killed virus is then used to make the final vaccine, and in the final vaccine formulation, no calf serum is used.