“The ICMR database is inaccessible to anyone outside of the government and perhaps also to many within the government. Most scientists — including several identified by Department of Science and Technology and NITI Aayog to develop new prediction models for India — do not have access to these data,” their petition noted. “Many scientists have been trying to get data on comorbidities and blood analysis of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, without success,” the letter noted. More sequencing and simultaneous collection of clinical data from infected individuals was crucial to understanding whether a mutated virus is more virulent. “These data should be released in real time to the scientific community for analysis and inference,” the letter said.

Source: The Hindu April 29, 2021 15:21 UTC