Jameel had earlier said he was concerned that authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence on COVID-19 as they set policy.
WED DESK
Senior virologist Shahid Jameel has resigned from a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government to detect variants of the coronavirus, he told NDTV on Sunday, days after questioning the authorities’ handling of the pandemic.
“It’s correct and I shall have nothing more to say,” Dr Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of the forum known as INSACOG, said.
“I am not obliged to give a reason,” he said in a text message to news agency Reuters, adding that he quit on Friday.
Renu Swarup, the secretary of the Department of Biotechnology that oversees INSACOG, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dr Jameel had recently written a piece in The New York Times in which he had said that scientists in India are facing a “stubborn response to evidence-based policy making.”
He had pointed out issues with India’s COVID-19 management, especially the lower testing, slow pace of vaccination, vaccine shortage and the need for a bigger healthcare workforce.