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to learn more. In.

0:30

This episode we talk about an abnormally

0:32

hot April and the upcoming heatwave. We

0:35

all to talk about the Bjp dropping

0:37

bridge portion shudder to think and fielding

0:39

his son current motion sensing from the

0:41

guess a good seat. But.

0:43

First, we talk about Astra Zeneca.

0:46

Admitting that it's Covert Nineteen vaccine

0:48

always shield can cause blood clots.

0:53

Hi I'm to Had a gun under a

0:56

new else. Been developing the The and Express

0:58

News show. The

1:03

global pharmaceutical giant as trials then Car

1:06

has for the first time admitted that

1:08

it's Corbett Nineteen Vaccine or We Shield

1:10

could cause low platelet count and the

1:12

formation of blood clots in very rare

1:15

cases. The. Company's facing a

1:17

class action lawsuit over allegations

1:19

that it's over nineteen vaccine

1:22

development collaboration with the University

1:24

of Oxford cause fatalities and

1:26

serious injuries including thrombosis and

1:29

thrombocytopenia syndrome. During. The pandemic

1:31

Astra Zeneca had licensed it's vaccine formula to

1:33

the Cinnamon Suit of India based in porn

1:35

A for the production of or We Shield

1:38

which was one of the to vaccines administered

1:40

in India against. Go with nineteen to know

1:42

more about this and the extent to which

1:44

those who to call me Shirley should be

1:47

concerned me speak to an end expresses and

1:49

will not. that. I'm. Not going

1:51

to begin my telling us what Astra

1:53

Zeneca has said regarding the over nineteen

1:55

vaccines that they produced. So. basically

1:58

the news has come to for

2:00

right now after there were

2:03

reports from British courts that

2:05

the drugmaker AstraZeneca, which markets

2:08

the Oxford vaccine for COVID-19,

2:10

said that the vaccine is

2:13

known to cause in rare

2:15

instances particular side effects known

2:17

as thrombosis with

2:20

thrombocytopenia, which in short is

2:22

known as TTS. And

2:25

for those who might not know what that

2:27

is, can you tell us what exactly

2:29

is TTS and how does

2:31

it impact the body? So, basically,

2:33

TTS is a very peculiar

2:35

condition, it's not something that

2:37

is seen commonly in which

2:40

the body starts forming

2:42

clots along with a

2:44

dip in the platelet

2:46

count. So, of course,

2:48

otherwise also with COVID,

2:50

the infection itself, clotting

2:53

is known to go

2:55

up in people. But this

2:57

particular kind of clot that

2:59

has been associated with the

3:01

COVID-19 vaccines that leads to

3:04

these clots being thrown into like

3:06

different parts of the body, which are

3:08

not commonly seen. So, you would see

3:11

a very peculiar presentation in the brain

3:13

as well. And that's

3:15

how it was apparently first noticed

3:17

because doctors started seeing these clots

3:20

which are not very commonly seen

3:22

in people. And in this

3:24

regard, were there any fatalities that were reported?

3:26

So, the thing

3:28

is TTS is actually quite fatal.

3:31

I mean, of course, it's not

3:33

that everybody who gets

3:35

it would die, but a

3:37

significant number of people do. So,

3:40

for example, in India, I

3:43

actually went through the data that has

3:45

been put out by the A EFI

3:47

committee, the committee that looks at adverse

3:49

events following immunization. And

3:51

according to the data, the last of

3:53

which was released in June 2023, there

3:56

have been at least 36 cases. which

4:00

have been directly linked to

4:03

vaccination with Covishield so

4:05

far and in 18

4:07

of them people have died. And

4:10

Anona, since there was such a

4:12

serious side effect of the vaccine,

4:14

were there any warnings given before

4:16

the vaccine was administered? So,

4:18

the thing is initially when the vaccination drives

4:20

were rolled out, which happened, the first shots

4:22

I think were given in December 2020 in

4:24

the US and

4:27

you know, at a similar time probably

4:29

in European countries. So, the

4:32

thing is initially, of course, we

4:34

did not know about this side effect at

4:36

all. It did not show up

4:38

in the trials. However, within a

4:41

few months of the vaccines being

4:43

administered, this rare side effect was

4:45

noticed and I think around

4:47

mid 2021, which

4:50

is when the vaccination drive

4:52

was picking up in India,

4:54

the companies actually started writing

4:57

about this side effect TTS

4:59

in their package inserts. So,

5:01

Covishield, which is manufactured by

5:04

SII, Serum Institute of India,

5:06

also started carrying this mention

5:08

of TTS and that the vaccine

5:11

shouldn't be given in people who

5:13

have had clotting episodes before or

5:15

have autoimmune diseases, started

5:18

coming up by about mid 2021

5:20

when the vaccination drive was being

5:23

scaled up. But what

5:25

a lot of people allege is

5:27

that these package inserts were not

5:29

something that they could read or

5:31

see with the vaccination

5:33

campaign, you know, the single bottle

5:36

containing several doses, which were given

5:38

one after the other two beneficiaries. So,

5:41

Anona, what does this mean for the

5:43

Indians who were administered shots of Covishield?

5:45

Should they really be concerned about this?

5:48

Not at all. So, first

5:50

of all, this TTS happens

5:53

after the vaccination, soon after. So,

5:55

it would happen within about three

5:57

weeks to a month of vaccination.

6:00

vaccination. It cannot happen 2

6:02

years post vaccination. So, people who've

6:04

taken the shots in 2021 or

6:06

2022 need not worry about it

6:08

at all. It won't happen now.

6:11

However, even at that time,

6:13

at the height of the pandemic, and

6:15

we spoke to several public health

6:18

experts and people who were there

6:20

in, you know, remedies that were

6:22

looking at implementing COVID

6:25

vaccination, they said that even

6:27

at that time, the benefits

6:29

of vaccination actually outweighed the

6:31

risk of TTA. You know,

6:33

this complication was first noticed a

6:36

few months into the vaccination

6:38

campaigns, which were started in

6:40

Europe. And these are quite

6:42

rare, so it didn't show up in

6:44

the trials. We started seeing these

6:47

rare side effects only once the

6:49

vaccine was given to a large

6:51

number of people, but that

6:53

just shows that it is quite a

6:55

rare condition. Of course, it

6:57

is fatal to some people, but

7:00

at a time when, you

7:02

know, so many people were dying

7:04

of COVID-19, there was a

7:06

need for vaccination to prevent the

7:08

disease. But yes, you cases of

7:11

vaccine related deaths have been

7:13

reported. And what are

7:16

medical experts saying now that AstraZeneca

7:18

has admitted to these side effects?

7:21

So what experts do say

7:23

is that there is a

7:25

case to be made for, you know,

7:28

not giving this vaccine at a younger

7:30

age group, which is what a lot

7:32

of European countries did. They said that,

7:35

you know, either like below the age

7:37

of 45 or 60 years, especially women,

7:39

because these cases are seen mostly in

7:42

women and younger women. So the experts

7:44

said probably in this age

7:46

group, we could have recommended that they

7:48

take the other vaccine, which

7:50

for India was a CO vaccine,

7:52

but in European countries, a lot of

7:55

people took the mRNA vaccine instead

7:57

of the Oxford vaccine. And

8:00

Anuna, what does all of this

8:02

mean for AstraZeneca? What kind

8:04

of consequences can we expect the company to

8:06

face? So what

8:09

the petitioners have said in

8:11

and what we've read from

8:14

UK Dailys is that this

8:16

admission that yes, the

8:18

TTS events are linked

8:20

to the vaccination might open

8:23

doors for multi-million pound

8:25

settlements in the UK. Of

8:28

course, people who faced this in

8:30

India would not be able to join

8:33

the class action lawsuit that is going

8:35

on in the UK, but there have

8:37

been people who are now saying

8:39

that they would sue the company even

8:42

in India. And

8:48

next we talk about the scorching heat wave that

8:50

has been gripping the country. April

8:52

of this year was marked by unprecedented

8:54

heat. According to the data

8:57

from the India Meteorological Department, heatwave conditions

8:59

were present for 26 days

9:01

across the country ranging from small

9:04

pockets to large geographical regions. While

9:06

the Southern Peninsula and South Eastern

9:09

coastal areas bore the brunt of

9:11

the heatwave, the Northern Plains have

9:13

remained relatively unaffected by the extreme

9:15

temperatures this season. To understand

9:17

the reasons behind April's intense heat,

9:19

the criteria for IMD's heatwave assessments

9:22

and what we can expect in

9:24

the coming month, Indian Express's Anjali

9:26

Marar joins us. Anjali,

9:29

which states and regions of India

9:31

are typically more prone to heatwaves?

9:34

So in India, there is an

9:36

area known as core heatwave

9:38

zone and this is largely

9:41

an area that covers Gujarat,

9:43

Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab,

9:45

Madhya Pradesh, parts of Maharashtra,

9:47

Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh.

9:49

So largely the Central India

9:51

and Northern Plains, all the

9:53

way from Gujarat to West

9:55

Bengal, are the most heatwave-prone

9:58

zones in the country. And

10:00

when does the India Material Logical Department

10:02

declare a heat wave? What

10:05

are the conditions that it looks for? So,

10:07

the IMD has set parameters

10:09

or set criteria of temperatures

10:11

following which the heat wave

10:14

is declared. So, this

10:16

categories are for three regions that

10:18

is planes, hilly regions and the

10:20

coast. And for each of these

10:22

geographical regions, the temperature thresholds are

10:24

different. So, for instance in the

10:26

plane, if the maximum temperature, the

10:28

actual maximum temperature process 40 degrees

10:30

Celsius, then the heat wave attempt,

10:32

the IMD attempts to declare a

10:34

heat wave or if the recorded

10:36

temperature departure from the normal is

10:38

more than 4.5 degrees Celsius, then

10:41

the IMD declares a heat wave

10:43

along the planes. Likewise, the same

10:45

threshold was different for the coastal

10:47

areas and the hilly areas.

10:50

Hilly areas it is 30 degrees and

10:52

the coastal areas it is 37 degrees. So,

10:54

depending on which location a heat wave

10:57

has to be declared, these criteria are

10:59

applied. And in any case, if the

11:01

maximum temperature exceeds 47 degrees Celsius, then

11:03

a severe heat wave is declared regardless

11:06

of where the location is. Right.

11:08

And what has the IMD said about

11:10

why April was so much hotter than

11:13

it usually is? So, in

11:15

the summer forecast for April, IMD

11:17

was capable enough to forecast well

11:20

in advance that April will be

11:22

warmer than what previous years have

11:24

been. That is primarily because 2024

11:28

is an El Nino year and

11:30

during El Nino years, it is

11:32

well known that the temperatures, the

11:34

summers are harsher, wherein there can

11:37

be chances of intense heat wave

11:39

spells, so which was realized during

11:41

April. And Anjali, you

11:43

mentioned the weather phenomenon El Nino. Can

11:46

you explain what that is? The

11:48

El Nino is a naturally occurring

11:50

oceanic phenomenon with a resurgence frequency

11:53

anywhere between 2 and 7 years.

11:56

El Nino conditions refer to the

11:58

above normal sea surface. of his number of each

12:00

other recorded along the equatorial

12:03

Pacific Ocean. The years when

12:05

El Nino conditions prevail, several

12:07

studies have shown that El

12:09

Nino is capable of suppressing

12:11

Indian summer monsoon and

12:13

also triggering harsher summers and

12:16

intense heat waves over India.

12:18

The ongoing El Nino began in

12:21

June 2023 and it peaked

12:23

during December as per the latest

12:25

forecast by IMD and the global

12:27

models. Moderate El Nino

12:29

conditions are prevailing and over the next couple

12:32

of months, it is expected

12:34

that the El Nino conditions

12:36

shall completely abate and be

12:38

replaced by neutral ENSO conditions.

12:40

Okay, so El Nino

12:42

was one factor. What are the

12:44

other reasons that April was so hot? So

12:47

another reason what the

12:49

IMD predominantly attributed such

12:52

warm April was the

12:54

persistent presence of anti-cyclone

12:56

system close to the Andhra

12:58

Pradesh coast. So one can imagine a 1000 to

13:01

2000 kilometer in size

13:03

system located over Andhra

13:05

Pradesh and this

13:07

anti-cyclone system which is a high

13:10

pressure system is able to push

13:13

air from top on

13:15

towards land and this is

13:17

called as a process called air subsidence.

13:20

Due to this air subsidence, it

13:22

so happens that the temperature closer to

13:24

land increases and second

13:26

prominent reason which the med department

13:28

has attributed is because of the

13:31

presence of anti-cyclone over many days

13:33

during April, the direction of a

13:35

breeze was mostly from land towards

13:38

the sea. So there was

13:40

no way that the cooling was happening. In

13:42

normal circumstances, the coastal regions benefit

13:45

from sea breeze from time to

13:47

time. So the school sea breeze

13:49

blows onto the land and keeps a check on

13:51

the temperature, but this time it was the worst.

13:54

It was land breeze which was going from land

13:56

towards the sea which is why southern peninsular India,

13:58

East India, and the South India. coastal

14:00

India suffered from prolonged heatwave

14:03

conditions and overall the country

14:05

did experience very hot summer

14:08

which was beyond normal. And

14:11

Anjali, can you tell us how high

14:13

were the temperatures this April in comparison

14:15

to those in the past? So

14:17

April was warmer in many

14:19

areas of the country. As

14:22

stated before, Southern Peninsula recorded

14:24

or experienced the second warmest

14:26

April since 1901 and breaching

14:28

the normal temperatures of 35.89

14:30

degrees maximum temperature, the Southern

14:34

Peninsula instead recorded 37.5 degrees

14:36

making it the second warmest

14:38

April. Likewise, even the minimum

14:41

temperatures were on the higher

14:43

side over Southern Peninsula. So

14:45

particularly I would say that

14:47

Southern Peninsula and Northeastern India,

14:49

it was much warmer than

14:51

otherwise what it would receive.

14:54

Anjali, we are now entering the

14:56

peak summer months. What prediction has

14:59

the IMD made regarding them? So

15:02

coming to forecast which was released on 1st

15:04

of May, the med department has not

15:07

had any great news to share.

15:09

It has predicted summer temperatures to

15:11

be continuing to be remaining above

15:14

normal even during May and prolonged

15:16

heatwave conditions are also predicted. And

15:18

this time in May, if April

15:21

the record temperatures were mostly limited

15:23

to Southern Peninsula or Eastern India,

15:25

now slowly the temperatures are going

15:27

to rise also in Northern India.

15:30

So as a result, harsher

15:32

summer days are awaiting

15:34

Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana,

15:37

Chandigarh, Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Madhya

15:39

Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh,

15:41

Tamil Nadu and this is also

15:43

because summers over India peaks during

15:46

the May month. So heatwaves have

15:48

been predicted which can last as

15:50

long as 8 to 11 days

15:53

whereas the normal heatwave days in May as

15:55

per IMD is 1 to 3 days.

15:58

And Anjali, our heat heat waves becoming frequent

16:01

and summers getting warmer since the

16:03

last couple of years? We

16:05

will not be in a position to say if heat

16:07

waves are increasing or so but

16:10

definitely what the med department says

16:12

that heat wave intensity and the

16:14

duration of heat waves has definitely

16:16

been increasing in the recent years.

16:19

So for the same year like

16:21

for example in the current year

16:23

Odisha has been reeling under heat

16:25

wave conditions since April 15 and

16:27

today is the 18th day of

16:29

being under heat wave. Similarly the

16:31

Gangetic West Bengal region also has

16:33

been reeling under heat wave for

16:36

15 continuous days. So if not harsher

16:38

heat waves but we can say the

16:40

heat wave intensity and its duration definitely

16:42

has gone up which means that you

16:44

feel the summers are more intense and

16:47

maybe this is going to be a

16:49

trend and especially during early no years

16:51

it is a well-known fact that

16:53

there are intense and prolonged heat

16:55

waves. Right and could

16:57

you talk about the kind of impact that

16:59

heat waves have on the human body and

17:02

what kind of precautions people should be taking?

17:05

So heat waves can be fatal

17:07

if one doesn't take precautions and

17:10

especially for those people who fall

17:12

under the vulnerable category like infants,

17:14

elderly people or those who work

17:17

outdoors throughout the farm laborers

17:19

or construction workers. So

17:22

there are certain categories of people

17:24

because of their work nature can

17:26

be more vulnerable to heat related

17:28

ailments. So it is always advisable

17:30

and the doctors and the met

17:33

agency always advises one to of

17:35

course follow the forecast but

17:37

overall it is suggested that

17:39

one must stay sufficiently hydrated

17:42

and one must not step out

17:44

outdoors especially during heat wave events

17:46

or such extreme temperatures particularly between

17:48

12 noon and 4 pm unless

17:50

it is absolutely a necessity to

17:53

step outdoors. Then wearing light

17:55

colored clothes and cotton clothes will always

17:57

help you stay cool in such warm.

18:00

summer months and exposure

18:02

to such very high temperatures and heat

18:04

must be avoided or one must always

18:06

take all these precautions in order to

18:09

stay healthy and not suffer from

18:12

heat related ailments. And

18:18

in the end we talk about the BJP

18:21

fielding Karan Bhushan Sharan Singh from the Kesar

18:23

Gan seat. The BJP yesterday

18:25

named Karan Bhushan Sharan Singh as a

18:27

slop Sabha candidate from the Kesar Gan seat

18:29

in Uttar Pradesh replacing his

18:31

father and incumbent MP, Prabhushan

18:34

Sharan Singh. The former

18:36

president of the Wrestling Federation of India

18:38

is currently facing allegations of sexual harassment

18:41

leveled against him by six women wrestlers.

18:44

The move retains the seats contest within

18:46

the family highlighting the influence of the

18:48

Thakur leader and six-time MP in the

18:51

region and in the party. Meanwhile

18:53

the ruling party also named Dinesh Pratap

18:55

Singh as the candidate from Raibh Rili

18:58

constituency which was won by the

19:00

former Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2019. Sonia

19:04

who won from the Gandhi-Slande Bastion

19:06

size consecutive times was elected to

19:08

the Rajya Sabha unopposed from Rajasthan

19:10

earlier this year. Yesterday's

19:12

announcement comes even as the Congress

19:15

continues to take an unusually long time

19:17

to name its candidate for the traditional

19:19

Nehru Gandhi family seats of a methi

19:21

and Raibh Rili. Sources claim

19:24

that the party leadership wants both Rahul

19:26

and Priyanka to contest and has not

19:28

shortlisted any other name for the two

19:31

seats as the last-minute discussions are on

19:33

full swing. The deadline to

19:35

file nominations for a methi and Raibh Rili

19:37

is today. These seats are going

19:39

to polls in the fifth phase on 20th

19:41

of May. You

19:45

were listening to Three Things by The New Express.

19:48

Today's show was edited and mixed by Suresh

19:50

Pawar and produced by Shashank Bhargav and me

19:52

Nihar Kannanda. If you like the show then

19:55

do subscribe to us wherever you get your

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You can also tweet us at

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