FMCG firms ramp up presence in chemist shops during pandemic thehindubusinessline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindubusinessline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Immune boosters are the new fatal attraction
Updated Jul 4, 2021, 7:19 am IST
People advised to swear by doctor s prescription
A health worker places medicine strips in a formation that reads CORONA . (Photo: PTI)
Hyderabad: Indians have spent Rs. 15 000 crore on immunity boosters, vitamins and supplements during the Covid 19 pandemic yet patients whose condition was severe and critical had no use of these products.
Immune boosters is a broad term and is used for a variety of components and extracts from plants, powdered supplements and juices that are used in those who have a diagnosed deficiency.
There were recommendations on public platforms, which led to high consumption of zinc, B-complex, vitamin D and other so-called immune building products.
Two industry bodies representing chemists and medical device makers have asked the Centre to vaccinate their staff members against Covid-19 on priority, saying they worked through the epidemic despite facing an enhanced risk of infection.
The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists and the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry said on Thursday that their appeals to the Centre to include their staff members into priority populations such as frontline workers have remained unheeded.
The AIOCD has demanded priority vaccination for an estimated 940,000 employees and workers in thousands of retail chemist and distribution outlets across the country, while AIMED estimates about 20,000 surgical and medical device dealers and staff.
Chemists, pharmacists seek priority vaccination
May 20, 2021
×
Since March last year over 650 of their members have died due to Covid, they say All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists on Thursday urged the government to consider the 9.4 lakh chemists and staff as being on essential duty and give them priority in Covid-19 vaccinations.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the organisation said despite their repeated appeal, the government has so far not heeded their request for priority vaccination.
If they continued to be ignored, they will have no option but join the lockdown to protest as well as save their own lives.