Owaisi laments INSACOG chief Shahid Jameel's exit: 'PM's scientific illiteracy cost us'

Lamenting the exit of top Indian virologist Shahid Jameel from the govt panel, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday, pointed out that Jameel's team had warned PM Modi of the second COVID wave. He pointed out in early March, Jameel who headed the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG), had warned PM Modi of the dangerous Indian mutant but was dismissed. Claiming that the country was paying for 'PM Modi's scientific illiteracy', Owaisi said that Jameel had said that the govt didn’t “take science into account”.

India's top virologist quits

On Sunday, Senior virologist Shahid Jameel resigned as the chairman of the scientific advisory group of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG). While the scientist has not opened up on the reason behind his resignation, he is known to be a tough critic of the Centre. The forum was set up by the Centre last year for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of COVID-19 in India.

Recently, Shahid Jameel had criticised the Centre in New York Times stating that the scientists in India were facing 'stubborn resistance to evidence-based policymaking'. He had also batted for ramping up testing, isolation and hospital beds to battle the second wave and had stressed on strengthening the healthcare workers suggesting that the government rope in retired doctors. Moreover, the virologist had raised concerns over the pace of vaccination in India.

“Decision-making based on data is yet another casualty, as the pandemic in India has spun out of control. The human cost we are enduring will leave a permanent scar," he wrote. "All these measures have wide support among my fellow scientists in India. But they are facing stubborn resistance to evidence-based policymaking," he added.

Under him, INSACOG had established a network of ten laboratories to carry out genome sequencing of COVID-19 samples from across India. Notably, the panel had in March rung an alarm on the possibility of a much more potent strain of virus being introduced in the country in the second wave. The B.1.617 variant also known as the Indian variant of COVID-19 has been attributed to be the main cause of the spike in infections in the new wave.