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An RTI application has become viral in India, which says newborn calf serum is used to make Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. The RTI reply to applicant Vikas Patni suggests says “The "newborn calf serum is used in the revival process of Vero cells, which is further used for the production of coronavirus during the manufacturing of Covaxin," Bharat Biotech in a reply to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has said. The RTI asked if vaccine producers used fetal bovine serum (FBS) in making coronavirus vaccines.
Experts say India has been using similar techniques in the production of polio vaccines . The calf serum is not used to make vaccines, but is used as an agent to grow the cell. After that, cell is purified and a virus is introduced into that cell. This is where the virus multiplies, it is harvested and killed.
The news if taken without proper perspective can spell trouble in a place like India where cow is considered holy and is worshiped by a certain section of people.
While people are asking whether the calf is killed for extraction of the serum. The companies generally claim to take the serum from living calf or it is imported from Slaughter houses abroad.
Cow has a “special status” in the electoral politics of the country as the ruling right wing party projects itself as the saviour of cows in India. Most of the states ruled by BJP have banned slaughter of cows. India has infamously reported many hate crimes where people of a certain community have been targeted and killed for ‘allegedly’ eating beef or even transporting bovine from one place to another.