Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Tuesday suggested that COVID-19 vaccines may be linked to a string of cardiac-related fatalities in the southern state.
He also announced the formation of a panel of experts to probe the deaths.
In the past month alone, at least 20 people have died due to heart-attacks in Hassan district, about 200 km from Bengaluru.
Siddaramaiah in a post on X wrote: “It cannot be denied that the hasty approval and distribution of the Covid vaccine to the public could also be a reason for these deaths, as several studies worldwide have recently indicated that COVID vaccines could be a cause for the increasing number of heart attacks.”
In the past month alone, in just one district of Hassan, more than twenty people have died due to heart attacks. The government is taking this matter very seriously. To identify the exact cause of these series of deaths and to find solutions, a committee of experts has been…
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) July 1, 2025
The chief minister said he has ordered the formation of a committee of experts, led by the chief of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences & Research, Dr K.S. Ravindranath, to identify the cause of the deaths. The committee has been asked to submit a report within 10 days.
“Orders were given to this same committee back in February to conduct a thorough study into the reasons behind sudden deaths among young people in the state, and whether the COVID vaccines could have any adverse effects. In this regard, the process of examining and analysing heart patients is also underway,” Siddaramaiah said.
Adding, “Before the BJP criticises us on this matter, they should ask their conscience.”
The BJP in Karnataka has defended the COVID-19 vaccines, giving credit to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government, for the quick development and distribution in several other countries.
“We are fully committed to finding the true cause of the sudden series of deaths in Hassan district and across the state and to preventing them,” Siddaramaiah said.
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‘Questioning vaccine is anti-science, anti-people’
The deaths in Hassan took a political turn with the Opposition in Karnataka accusing the ruling party of deflecting attention rather than taking responsibility for the deaths.
“Instead of providing answers to grieving families, CM @siddaramaiah is indulging in dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric, blaming COVID vaccines, approved by global health authorities and administered worldwide, without a shred of scientific evidence from their side. This is not leadership. This is cowardice,” R. Ashok, the Leader of the Opposition said in a post on X.
“To now use these tragedies to cast doubts on the vaccine and shift accountability is both anti-science and anti-people,” he added.
It is deeply unfortunate that even as over twenty lives have been lost to sudden heart attacks in just one district alone, the @INCKarnataka government is more interested in deflecting blame than in taking responsibility.
Instead of providing answers to grieving families, CM… https://t.co/SBVWTYHzDJ
— R. Ashoka (@RAshokaBJP) July 1, 2025
Siddaramaiah hit back at the BJP, asking them not to politicise the issue. “We too value the lives of children, youth, and innocent people who have their entire lives ahead of them, and we share the concerns of their families. I condemn the actions of BJP leaders who are using such matters for their political gains,” he said.
The deaths being reported in Hassan have added to the problems of the Siddaramaiah-led government that has faced allegations of mismanagement of healthcare in the past as well.
The state government undertook re-testing of all 192 batches of an IV fluid after the deaths of four pregnant women in Ballari in December last year. Of the batches of the IV-based drug, Ringer Lactate solution IV fluid—procured from a West Bengal-based company, Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical Ltd—22 had failed.
Between 9 and 11 November, there were four maternal deaths reported at the District Hospital in Ballari, about 320 km from Bengaluru.
At the time, Karnataka health minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao, had said of the 34 patients who had the procedures, seven suffered severe complications and four women died.
The Opposition claimed that the death toll was higher. Post the incident, the government attempted to restructure current procedures in its medical facilities, including tendering and auditing of maternal deaths in the immediate past to probe if any of them were caused by sub-standard or contaminated drugs and bringing the state drugs control department under food safety.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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