New Delhi: Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh found himself in the middle of a controversy Thursday, when he wondered out aloud if India needed a vaccine at all given its recovery rate.
Singh posted a tweet listing out the efficacy level of various Covid-19 vaccines that are under development, along with India’s recovery rate.
While Pfizer, Biotech, Moderna and Oxford vaccines have the accuracy ranging from 90% to 94.5%, India’s recovery rate “without vaccine” is 93.6 per cent, he said, wondering: “Do we seriously need vaccine?”
PFIZER AND BIOTECH Vaccine:
Accuracy *94%
Moderna Vaccine: Accuracy *94.5%
Oxford Vaccine: Accuracy *90%
Indian Recovery rate (Without Vaccine): 93.6%
Do we seriously need vaccine ??— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 3, 2020
This did not go down too well with Twitter users and the former spinner was trolled on social media, with users asking him to “do the math” properly. Several people also asked him to delete WhatsApp, which is known for spreading misinformation.
Delete WhatsApp.
— Meghnad ? (@Memeghnad) December 3, 2020
Bhaisahab delete your WhatsApp.
— Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) December 3, 2020
YES! Because the seven per cent that are dying in absence of medicine need a chance. Also, stop copy-pasting WhatsApp forwards without even a single google search ??♀️
— Stuti (@StuteeMishra) December 3, 2020
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Harbhajan Singh gets lessons in maths
Singh was also given lessons on data analysis and maths on Twitter, with several users highlighting the difference between a country’s recovery rate and the efficacy rate of vaccines.
Do not post such stupid tweets.. ?♂️?♂️
If there was a 5% chance that the plane will crash, will u board it?
A recovery rate of 93.6% means 6.4% will get serious/die.
Now calculate the 6.4% of 1.4 billion population!! DO THE MATH!
Learn SCIENCE before tweeting@harbhajan_singh
— Shubham Misra ? (@SBM_4007) December 3, 2020
A user, who is a doctor according to his Twitter bio, also explained how the 6.4 people dying due to Covid, out of 100, deserved a fighting chance.
Recovery rate of 93.6 % means 6.4 out of 100 people die. Do u want to be in that list ?
95 % effective means you have 95 out of 100 chances of not being in that list. Take you choice Chicha
Also remember recovery also comes up with load of pain, expenses and later complications
— Dr.P.S.VishnuVardhan (@drpsvvardhan) December 3, 2020
IPS officer Rupin Sharma resorted to a cricket analogy to put his point across.
If everyone in indian cricket team has a MoM award, then India should win all matches.
It doesn't happen that way, bhai. Statistics can be misleading and can help make a fool of ourselves.
— Rupin Sharma IPS (@rupin1992) December 3, 2020
Some users even compared Singh to their “uncles on family WhatsApp groups”.
You are just like my fufaji and mamaji on whatsapp family groups. So Cute ?
— Aayush Khandelwal (@JustAayush) December 3, 2020
बेटी की जगह अब बेटो को पढ़ने पर फोकस करें मोदी जी…
— Vikrant ~ विक्रांत (@vikrantkumar) December 3, 2020
UK became the first western country Wednesday to approve a Covid-19 vaccine with its regulator clearing US-based firms Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s candidate. The vaccine will be available in the country from next week.
However, reports indicate, the Pfizer vaccine may not come to India any time soon.
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His math is wrong. Covid 19 is fast spreading respiratory virus and positive not tested can be presumed to be more than the number tested. Hence real mortality rate is much less than 1 percent even. By the way your chances of dying by road traffic accident and TB ( for which even cure is there) is more than covid 19
Is this a newsworthy item? Why is it featured so prominently on The Print?