COVID vaccine don't belong to any political party, but humanity: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar, Jan 02: COVID-19 vaccines do not belong to any political party, but humanity, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Saturday, hours after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed coronavirus vaccines to be rolled out in the country as 'vaccine of the BJP'.

Taking to Twitter, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said, 'I don't know about anyone else but when my turn comes I'll happily roll up my sleeve & get a COVID vaccine.' The more people get vaccinated, the better it will be for the country and the economy, the National Conference (NC) vice president said.

'No vaccine belongs to any political party, they belong to humanity & the sooner we get vulnerable people vaccinated the better,' he tweeted.

While talking to reporters in Lucknow, Yadav, said, 'How can I trust the vaccine, which will be used for vaccination by the BJP? We cannot get vaccinated by the BJP's vaccine.'

On Saturday, an expert panel of India's central drug authority recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin with certain conditions, a day after giving similar directions for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine.

The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had on Friday recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield, being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

The NC leader also tweeted that this 'virus has been far too disruptive & if a vaccine helps bring about a semblance of normalcy after all the chaos then sign me up.'