God won’t help if we don't help ourselves: Delhi HC on govt’s vaccination policy

The bench of justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Jasmeet Singh said it the duty of the government to lay down the way forward amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday questioned the government’s vaccination policy against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and suggested that the younger people should be saved as they are the future of the country. “These are not a satisfactory system. You initially started the vaccination of 45-60. And now you have introduced it for 18-year-olds. We only find you are not vaccinating them. There is no vaccine. Why did you announce vaccination for them? Why did you have to make such a wrong declaration? We have to invest in the future, not rest in the future. We are sidelining the youth of our country and preferring the older people,” it said.

Delhi High Court said we need to protect our future and save our youth as the country is battling the coronavirus pandemic. (File Photo)

“So many young people have lost their lives. It is the younger lot which is the future. We are on our way out. We need to protect our future, we need to save our youth,” it said

The bench of justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Jasmeet Singh said it the duty of the government to lay down the way forward as it cited the example of Italy, which it said apologised for picking the young over the old when there was a shortage of hospitals beds in that country.

“We don't have beds for old patients. Your 80-year old has lived your life... But when we are in times of crisis... Ideally, you should save everyone and if you don't have the resources then chose to think about the younger,” it said. “God will also not help us if we don't help ourselves. You have all the figures,” the court added.

Amit Mahajan, representing the Centre, said the issue is under consideration. “We discussed all these points. How are doctors giving prescriptions to patients? When medicines are with the hospitals? They have alternate medicine,” he said.

On Monday, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre and state government to put before it a policy on who should be given priority amid an acute shortage of Amphotericin-B, the only last-line drug used to treat mucormycosis. Justice Sanghi and Justice Singh said authorities will have to take the “cruel decision” of excluding certain age groups or classes till supplies of the drug are short.

The bench said that if there are two patients who need the drug — one who is 80-year-old and another who is 35 — and there is only one dose of medicine, one will have to be excluded. “If we have to make that cruel choice, we have to make it. We are faced with that situation. We will have to cross this bridge. Will you give it to the 80-year-old or to the 35-year-old who has two children to support?

The court asked the central and Delhi governments to return on Tuesday with instructions on the matter.