Prashant Bhushan pleads Supreme Court for order to make vaccine trial data public; Centre's reply sought

NEW DELHI: Advocate Prashant Bhushan has pleaded the Supreme Court to pass an order to make Covid vaccines' clinical trial data public.
Bhushan has also alleged that the authorities and companies are not revealing information regarding the side-effects of vaccines.
Challenging the Centre's Covid vaccination policy making it virtually mandatory for people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, Bhushan said that it must be made voluntary.
The top court said that it will examine, but underscored that universal vaccination is essential to deal with the ongoing pandemic.
"We will examine your [Bhushan's] plea but we do not want to create confusion in the minds of people regarding the efficacy of the vaccines, as vaccine hesitancy is already creating problem," the apex court told Bhushan.
SC seeks reply from Centre
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has also issued a notice to the Centre, seeking response from the government and others on the plea on disclosure of data of clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines.
A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Hrishikesh Roy issued notice on the plea, and asked the Centre and others to respond to it within four weeks.