Soni Razdan on Covishield’s exclusion from EU’s Green Pass eligibility list: ‘Nothing short of disgusting’

Veteran actor Soni Razdan voiced her displeasure about Covishield, a domestically manufactured version of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, being excluded from the list of vaccines whose recipients are eligible for the European Union (EU)’s ‘Green Pass’. This comes even as Covishield has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Soni Razdan retweeted a tweet by journalist Barkha Dutt calling the move ‘ugly racism’ and wrote, “Totally agree. This is nothing short of disgusting and I’m wondering what kind of politics has brought this on. The @WHO must intervene immediately.”

The Green Pass, which will be available for use from July 1, allows recipients of European Medicines Agency (EMA)-approved vaccines to travel freely in EU member states for work and tourism. As of now, four vaccines have received the EMA nod – Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Moderna, Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

Soni has been regularly sharing her views on the Covid-19 pandemic on Twitter. Earlier this month, she said that the situation seems ‘unreal’ and lauded everyone for surviving the tough times. “Sometimes I still can’t believe what we’re living through. It still seems unreal however much we ‘normalise’ it and ‘deal’ with it. All I want to say to everyone is hats off to us ! And of course stay safe and stay careful. Some day … over the rainbow,” she wrote.

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Meanwhile, Soni’s daughter, actor Alia Bhatt, has been sharing verified information about Covid-19 resources across the country. She has also been urging her fans and followers to get themselves vaccinated at the earliest.

Last month, Alia posted a video in which she said, “In the fight against Covid-19, science is our greatest ally. Science gave us vaccines and vaccines give us hope. Thanks to vaccines, we now have a way of ending this pandemic and rebuilding our lives. But even though the vaccine is here and waiting, some of us are still hesitant. A great deal of this hesitancy is linked to misinformation, myths and rumours that are exchanged on social media and other messaging platforms.” She announced a five-part series as an attempt to share authentic information about Covid-19 vaccines.