Ramdev says he will take Covid vaccine despite claiming that yoga, Ayurveda protected him

Yoga guru Ramdev on Thursday said that he will get his first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine soon, after earlier claiming that yoga and Ayurveda had protected him from the infection so far.

In a video, tweeted by JanTv, Ramdev said that everyone should get two doses of the vaccine and also practice yoga and Ayurveda to build a protective shield against the infection. “This will help prevent deaths due to Covid-19,” Ramdev added.

The yoga guru, who has landed in a controversy with experts of modern medicine because of his misleading remarks, said in the video that there was no doubt about allopathic treatments being better in case of emergencies and surgeries.

“But other life-threatening diseases, incurable disorders can be cured through ancient practices listed in yoga...ayurveda, which is not a matter of argument,” Ramdev claimed, according to ANI.

Ramdev said he was not against modern medicine but those who were exploiting people by charging exorbitant prices for them. “We want people to be wary of unnecessary medicines and operations,” the yoga guru added.

The yoga guru, who has been heavily criticised by the Indian Medical Association for allegedly trying to discredit health workers amid the coronavirus crisis, described doctors as “a blessing for the earth”.

“We cannot be enemies with any organisation,” Ramdev said in the video. “All good doctors are angels sent by god. If a doctor does something wrong, it is their own fault.”

The yoga guru has made misleading claims about modern medicine on several occasions. On May 31, Ramdev had said that he did not feel the need to get vaccinated yet since he had been practicing yoga-Ayurveda for decades.

In another video from May, Ramdev claimed that 1,000 doctors died even after getting two doses of the vaccine.

Before that, Ramdev had referred to allopathy as a “stupid science”. He even claimed that medicines such as remdesivir and favipiravir approved by the Drugs Controller General of India for coronavirus treatment had failed. “Lakhs of patients have died because of allopathic medicines rather than a shortage of oxygen,” he claimed.

However, he issued an apology after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to withdraw his comments.

On May 27, the Indian Medical Association had filed a police complaint against Ramdev, seeking a first information report against him for spreading “false and baseless” information about the treatment of Covid-19 patients using approved methods and drugs.

The medical association demanded that an FIR be filed against Ramdev under the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

On May 25, the Indian Medical Association’s Uttarakhand unit had sent a defamation notice to Ramdev for calling allopathic medicine a “stupid science”.

‘Quack in the garb of baba’: Doctors’ body writes to ICMR

The Indian Medical Association on Wednesday urged the Indian Council of Medical Research to intervene to stop Ramdev’s “unprovoked demeaning and prejudicing utterances against modern medicine”, ANI reported.

The association described Ramdev as a “quack in the garb of baba”. “We are seeking your indulgence as the statutorily authorised ‘custodian’ of modern medicine in the interest of the medical profession and medical professionals, especially in the context of the material fact that self-styled Baba Ramdev through his ruthless public utterances is making a mockery of modern medicine and the professionals,” it said.

The doctors association alleged that Ramdev undermined the Indian Council of Medical Research’s contribution to the country’s battle against the Covid-19 crisis.

The association said Ramdev must be stopped from causing “unilateral irreparable damage to the fair name and credit of the protocols prescribed by the ICMR, executed by the modern medicine professionals, including humiliation that he has heaped on the Covid martyrs by insulting them in the most barbaric and beastly manner”.