Poor used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials

IT IS THE stuff movies are made of – big pharma going into the slums of India to conduct vaccine trials on the most vulnerable and marginalised of society, sometimes with tragic consequences.

We don’t often get to hear about it but this was the experience of slum dwellers in North Bhopal recently, in the rush to market an indigenous Indian vaccine.

Sometime last month, trucks mounted with loudspeakers rolled into the slums of North Bhopal, announcing that anyone who wanted a Covid-19 vaccine could get it at the hospital and receive the equivalent of R156. For many in the area that amount equalled two days’ wages.

This was the third phase of the human