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More than a dozen slum residents in an Indian city say they thought they were being vaccinated. They were part of clinical trials
(CNN) — The white van arrived in slum areas of Bhopal, a city in central India, blasting a message over the speaker system that seemed too good to refuse: “Come and take the coronavirus vaccine and get 750 rupees ($10).”
Locals who recalled hearing it back in December said they scrambled to take up the offer — 750 rupees was about twice what they’d usually earn for a day’s hard labor. And many had struggled to work at all during the pandemic.
“They told us it is the corona vaccine and we should get it so that we don’t fall sick,” said Yashoda Bai Yadav, a housewife from Bhopal who participated in the trial alongside her husband.
They say they later discovered from local activists that some of them hadn’t been given an approved vaccine and had unwittingly taken part in a clinical trial for India’s homegrown vaccine, Covaxin. Only half of the participants in Covaxin’s Phase 3 trial received a vaccine — the other half received a placebo, a normal part of clinical trials. One participant — Radha Aherwar — even found out it was possible she got a placebo while speaking to CNN for this story, saying “Oh, so what I got wasn’t a vaccine? I didn’t know that there was a possibility you could get a water shot.”
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The Shankar Nagar slum — where many of the participants live — is just 3.7km (2.3 miles) from the abandoned Union Carbide factory which was at the center of the 1984 disaster that exposed more than half a million people to a toxic gas cloud. Nearly 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath, and the disaster was blamed for at least 10,000 subsequent deaths, and more than 100,000 permanent injuries.
Decades later, many residents still suffer related health issues, raising questions from local non-governmental organizations about residents’ suitability to take part in a study that vaccine developer Bharat Biotech has called the biggest Phase 3 vaccine trial ever conducted in India.
...
More than a dozen slum residents in an Indian city say they thought they were being vaccinated. They were part of clinical trials
(CNN) — The white van arrived in slum areas of Bhopal, a city in central India, blasting a message over the speaker system that seemed too good to refuse: “Come and take the coronavirus vaccine and get 750 rupees ($10).”
Locals who recalled hearing it back in December said they scrambled to take up the offer — 750 rupees was about twice what they’d usually earn for a day’s hard labor. And many had struggled to work at all during the pandemic.
“They told us it is the corona vaccine and we should get it so that we don’t fall sick,” said Yashoda Bai Yadav, a housewife from Bhopal who participated in the trial alongside her husband.
They say they later discovered from local activists that some of them hadn’t been given an approved vaccine and had unwittingly taken part in a clinical trial for India’s homegrown vaccine, Covaxin. Only half of the participants in Covaxin’s Phase 3 trial received a vaccine — the other half received a placebo, a normal part of clinical trials. One participant — Radha Aherwar — even found out it was possible she got a placebo while speaking to CNN for this story, saying “Oh, so what I got wasn’t a vaccine? I didn’t know that there was a possibility you could get a water shot.”
...
The Shankar Nagar slum — where many of the participants live — is just 3.7km (2.3 miles) from the abandoned Union Carbide factory which was at the center of the 1984 disaster that exposed more than half a million people to a toxic gas cloud. Nearly 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath, and the disaster was blamed for at least 10,000 subsequent deaths, and more than 100,000 permanent injuries.
Decades later, many residents still suffer related health issues, raising questions from local non-governmental organizations about residents’ suitability to take part in a study that vaccine developer Bharat Biotech has called the biggest Phase 3 vaccine trial ever conducted in India.
...
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