New Delhi: A tweet by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on the efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines was flagged as “misleading” by Twitter, prompting the 64-year-old to post a clarification.
Sharing a news report Monday about a man who blamed vaccines for his wife’s death, Bhushan said that the government is not monitoring adverse events from vaccines nor releasing data. He also stated that he has not taken the vaccine and does not intend to take it in the future.
He further tweeted that “the healthy and young have hardly any chance of serious effects or dying due to covid. They have a higher chance of dying due to vaccines.”
The healthy young have hardly any chance of serious effects or dying due to covid. They have a higher chance of dying due to vaccines. The covid recovered have much better natural immunity, than the vaccine gives them. Vaccines may even compromise their acquired natural immunity.
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) June 28, 2021
The tweets were marked “misleading” by the social media giant.
Unfazed by the criticism, Bhushan posted a two-page long clarification on his “vaccine scepticism”.
“I have been attacked by many for tweeting about my views on Covid vaccines. The piece below summarises my vaccine skepticism & the reasons for this. Apart from the vaccines being untested & having serious adverse effects, I am shocked by attempts to censor such contrarian views”, the senior advocate wrote.
I have been attacked by many for tweeting about my views on Covid vaccines. The piece below summarises my Vaccine skepticism & the reasons for this. Apart from the vaccines being untested & having serious adverse effects, I am shocked by attempts to censor such contrarian views pic.twitter.com/UktE7f7BPt
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) June 28, 2021
He said he is not anti-vaccine or anti-science, but he is “aware of several instances where scientific views on several subjects have been driven by commercial, political and media vested interest.”
He also claimed that many scientists have pointed out that the serious adverse effects of vaccines and adverse events due to the usage of drugs and vaccines are “underreported”.
The tweet by Bhushan received severe backlash from social media users for spreading vaccine hesitancy and fear-mongering. Many, including actor Siddharth and journalist Nidhi Razdan, demanded Twitter to take action and called for marking the tweet as misleading.
Illogical, wrong and unscientific. This is intellectual anarchy. These are the leaders of our bar? Shameful. https://t.co/GdYtpvv857
— Sandeep Parekh (@SandeepParekh) June 28, 2021
Strongly disagree with @pbhushan1 on this one. @Twitter ought to mark it as misinformation.
At a time when everyone needs to get vaccinated ASAP, this is a reputation destroying outpouring from Bhushan. https://t.co/YlD8dgBScX
— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) June 28, 2021
This is a dangerously irresponsible statement from you @pbhushan1. Twitter should act on this. Folks, please listen to doctors across the world and get vaccinated. Listen to science, not to this fear mongering https://t.co/jkj5gr7WQ1
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) June 28, 2021
Prashant – we lost a brilliant young researcher and comrade, a healthy young man in his 30s, to Covid-19. A friend lost her brother, aged 50, otherwise healthy, to Covid. Try telling the little kids of these 2 that "the healthy young have hardly any chance of dying due to covid". https://t.co/4gJDb1Xz2l
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) June 28, 2021
Twitter’s misleading information policy
Twitter’s ‘COVID-19 misleading information policy‘ states that content that is demonstrably false or misleading and may lead to a significant risk of harm may not be shared on Twitter.
This includes sharing content that may mislead people about the nature of the Covid-19 virus; the efficacy and/or safety of preventative measures, treatments, or other precautions to mitigate or treat the disease; official regulations, restrictions, or exemptions pertaining to health advisories; or the prevalence of the virus or risk of infection or death associated with Covid-19.
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