GRIM

CEO of Vaccine Manufacturer Flees India Over Threats

Adar Poonawalla said people had surrounded his company’s compound multiple times.

The CEO of an Indian coronavirus vaccine manufacturer fled the country due to constant threats against him, he said. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute, which produces the preventative developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford, left for England late last week, he told The Times. “The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It’s overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can’t understand why anyone else should get it before them… They are saying if you don’t give us the vaccine it’s not going to be good. It’s not foul language. It’s the tone. It’s the implication of what they might do if I don’t comply.” He said people seeking the vaccine had surrounded his company’s compound multiple times. The coronavirus pandemic in India has reached catastrophic levels in recent weeks, with the country recording more than 300,000 cases multiple days in a row this week and 400,000 cases on Saturday. Poonawalla said, “I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad.”