Do citizens have the right to choose a COVID-19 vaccine? The FAQs of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) are silent on the issue. Ahead of a mass vaccine rollout, ethicists are raising the question: when it’s my turn, will I have the choice between products that have variable contents, pedigrees, and efficacy levels? Medical experts and legal brains are of the view that citizens do have the right to choose, especially since data of the trial run of vaccines has not been made public, creating room for ambiguity and uncertainty.

Advocate Tishampati Sen, who practices at the Supreme Court and tribunals including consumer courts, said, "Vaccine invention, production and approval has been achieved at an unbelievable pace. While one hopes that this is a god-sent panacea, from a legal point of view there are grey areas. Two vaccines have been approved by the DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) — Oxford-Astra Zeneca’s ‘Covishield’ and Bharat Biotech’s indigenous ‘Covaxin’ — on the basis of information only they are privy to. The deployment of the vaccines, including location-based selection, is up to the government alone at this stage."