Congress-fuelled vaccine hesitancy responsible for Covid-19 deaths: B Sriramulu

Social Welfare Minister B Sriramulu said on Wednesday that the Congress party had misled the people on vaccination by creating hesitancy and that it should own up the responsibility for the Covid-19 deaths.

“Four months back, the Congress, led by Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D K Shivakumar, launched a campaign to create doubts in the minds of people about Covid vaccine. They created hesitancy, said vaccines can cause infertility so on, so forth... Because of propaganda against Covid-19 jabs, people became vaccine-hesitant. This led to a surge in Covid-19 deaths,” Sriramulu told reporters here.

Also Read | Covid-19 positivity rate dropping in state, says Sudhakar

“They (Congress leaders) want the cases and fatalities to soar so that it would bring disrepute to the country and undermine the efforts of PM Modi and CM Yediyurappa to tackle the pandemic,” Sriramulu charged.

JD(S) leaders H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy are cooperating with the government in the fight against the Covid-19. They (Congress) should learn from JD(S), he said. When asked about the Congress party’s offer to ‘donate’ Rs 100 crore from LAD funds for vaccine procurement, Sriramulu said, “This (LAD fund) is people’s money. It is just a ‘publicity gimmick’.”