Why caller tune when no vax is available: HC

Why caller tune when no vax is available: HC

Abhinav.Garg@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 14.05.2021 

Delhi High Court on Thursday wondered why the Centre had not yet changed the “irritating” message accompanying the caller tune asking people to get vaccinated, when vaccines were not available.

“You are not vaccinating people, but you still say that vaccination lagavaiye (get vaccinated). Kahan se lagwayein vaccines (how will one get vaccinated) when there is none. What is the point of the message,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli told the Centre’s lawyers.

“You have been playing that one irritating message on the phone whenever one makes a call, that people should get the vaccination, when you (Centre) don’t have enough vaccines. You should give it to everyone. Even if you are going to take money, give it. That is what even children are saying,” the bench remarked, adding that the government needed to be “innovative” in such things.

The court said the government should prepare more messages instead of preparing just one and running it even while the ground situation had changed. “Till like a tape it stops running or starts skipping you will run it for10 years?” it asked.

It also suggested using television anchors or producers to create short programmes on making people aware about use of oxygen concentrators and cylinders or on vaccination, which could be aired on all the channels. On the suggestion floated by some lawyers, it agreed that celebrities, such as Amitabh Bachchan, could also be asked to chip in, but added a caveat that all this “needed to be done soon.”

“We are losing time. There should be a sense of urgency,” the bench said and directed the Centre and Delhi government to file their reports by May 18 on what steps were they going to take for disseminating information on Covid management via print, television media and caller tunes.

Meanwhile, the AAP government informed the bench that it had not been extensively using the Feluda test for Covid detection as it had a high false positives. It said, while RT-PCR had a longer turnaround time, it could give results of 96 samples, while Feluda gave one sample in half an hour.

The bench then asked ICMR to examine the government’s stand and revert, pointing out that Feluda was an ideal test to keep ready when the lockdown ended, and the city reopened. “We can’t remain like this all the time. We must be open and prepared for the future so that immediate samples can yield results. If efficiency is there, cost is less then you can use it in certain areas extensively when the city opens,” the bench said.

The court had earlier asked Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) why the Covid tests — Feluda and RAY — developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had not gained popularity like RT-PCR. It also asked ICMR to inform it about the efficacy of both the tests after being informed by amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao that, not only did both these tests had an efficacy equal to or better than that of the RT-PCR, but they were cheaper and gave faster results in less than an hour. Rao even added that RAY was an improved version of Feluda.

The court said all the ICMR-approved tests should be available to the public, especially those that were cheaper and gave accurate and faster results.

The bench directed the Centre and Delhi government to file their reports by May 18 on what steps were they going to take for disseminating info on Covid management via print, TV media and caller tunes