PEOPLE PROPAGATING MISINFORMATION, DOCTORS ASSAULTED: IMA SEEKS PM MODI INTERVENTION

Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sought his personal intervention to resolve medicos’ body pleas to ensure that medical professionals are able to work without fear and initiate action against people who spread misinformation regarding vaccination drive.

“Any person(s) who spreads misinformation against the vaccination drive which is meant to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, must be booked and punished in accordance with law including under the relevant provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, 2005. All such acts of omission and commission on behalf of any person raising doubts in the minds of the common public against the protocol guidance issued by the Ministry of Health for treatment of COVID-19 infected patients – ought to be suitably punished and simultaneously, any attempt of any person to fool the gullible public and promote so-called “magic remedies” or “wonder drugs” without the approval of the Ministry of Health, Government of India – ought to be immediately curtailed,” the letter reads.

IMA also requested that in ‘The Health Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019’, which seeks to punish people who assault on-duty doctors and other healthcare professionals by imposing a jail term of up to 10 years – which ought to be promulgated immediately along with the incorporation of provisions from the IPC/CrPC and with stipulations for a fixed time schedule for speedy conclusion of trials.