BJP, RSS leaders volunteer for Phase III vaccine trials

Tribune News Service
Rohtak, November 26

Quite a few leaders of the ruling BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) are coming forward as volunteers for the clinical human trials of indigenous Covid vaccine Covaxin going on at Rohtak PGIMS.

After Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij took the initiative and became the first volunteer in Phase III of the ongoing trials, former Haryana minister and senior BJP leader Manish Grover got the vaccine administered on Thursday.

Grover maintained that he suffers from diabetes as well as hypertension, but had got the vaccine after undergoing the requisite medical tests and getting clearance from the doctors.

“I am proud to be part of the Covid vaccine trials and appeal to the residents to come forward and get the vaccine administered to get rid of the pandemic,” he stated.

Advocate Rakesh Sapra and former district BJP president Ramesh Bhatia also got the vaccine along with Grover.

Prof OP Kalra, Vice-Chancellor of Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, said more than 400 persons had got themselves registered as volunteers in the third phase of clinical human trials of the vaccine at Rohtak PGIMS. Of them, 176 had already got the vaccine administered.

RSS functionaries Subhash Ahuja, Vijay Kumar and Ishwar Singh have also volunteered for the trials and got doses of the vaccine.