Plea in SC for direction to seek details on COVID-19 from China, WHO to facilitate Antidote Development

On Tuesday, a plea was filed in the Apex Court seeking directions to the Centre to make a representation to China and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and seek information on COVID-19 to facilitate in developing an effective antidote for the virus.

The Public Interest Litigation, filed by a doctors' organisation -- Doctors For You, urged the Supreme Court to direct the Govt to make representation to China to share the epidemiology, evolution, clinical data & full extent of data, indicators & statistics on the coronavirus, which it said has put at stake the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

The plea said that it will help the Indian medical scientists & doctors to research & have a better chance of developing an antidote for the virus.

It said that while the pandemic puts the lives of everyone around the world at stake, China was successful in controlling & restricting the virus & this allowed the authorities to direct for reopening of the wet markets.

The petition sought direction for the Central Govt to call upon China to allow a probe by representatives of the most affected countries to assess the severity & dynamics of Coronavirus.

The plea said, "Direct the respondent (Centre) to call upon China, through diplomatic channels, to share the RNA sequence of the various strains & mutations that have been found in the vicinity of Wuhan, to assist & collaborate in ongoing research to the potential line of treatments to cure the affected persons & provide with details of vaccines in the process to abate the effects of the virus".

Further, it sought directions for the Centre to call upon the WHO for its delay in notifying to the world community of the pandemic & supporting China to display an underplay effect of the pandemic statistics.

It sought directions for the government to approach the WHO to immediately initiate a probe & not to keep the investigation pending on the uncertainty of it being tamed.

The plea stated that "It is necessary to study the ground zero (the place from where the virus originated) for development of a vaccine by Indian medical scientists. This knowledge is necessary to develop an effective vaccine for coronavirus, including its various mutations".

"It is also necessary to study how the virus jumped species & affected the human population. The study of ground zero is also imperative to understand the cause of the spread of the virus & develop effective ways to prevent the spread of similar diseases in the future," the plea added. 

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