Covid vaccine restored eyesight, Sugnu elderly claims
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, July 08 2021: Following reports of people recovering their vision after getting the Covid-19 vaccine in other states, an 83-year old man from Sugnu has claimed that the vision of his right eye has been restored after getting the Covishield vaccine on July 3.On receiving news of the man's claim, a team of reporters accompanied Keirao AC and State Planning Board deputy chairman Lourembam Rameshwor to the residence of the elderly man on Thursday.

The person identified as Pukhrambam Mangi of Lilong Shantipur of Keirao AC has been settling at Thana Leirak in Sugnu AC since around 50 years back.

He had been relatively healthy throughout his life but started losing vision on his right eye a decade ago.

The condition worsened in the last 2-3 years but he never consulted a doctor despite experiencing migraines, dizzy spells and frequent falls due to old age.

On July 3, he went to a vaccination programme organised at Community Health Centre in Sugnu Bazar and got vaccinated.

However, 2-3 days after getting vaccinated, he started gaining vision on his right eye and slowly stopped having migraines, dizzy spells and frequent falls as well.

The recovery was so profound that he no longer feels afraid of cycling outside.

He even demonstrated threading a needle with only his right eye open in front of the reporters as proof.

He then said that he has been sharing his experiences to the people and appealing them to get vaccinated, while expressing his belief that he could live up to 100 years.

Keirao AC MLA L Rameshwar said that Mangi had settled at Sugnu to earn a livelihood.

A few days ago, Mangi's son had called him to ask whether he got vaccinated but was informed that Mangi had already got the jab and was even able to see from his right eye.

Mangi also told his son of having been free of his previous discomforts.

The MLA then said that although he has seen news reports of vision being restored after getting the vaccine, it is hard to say for sure the vaccine was the factor as this is the job of scientists and doctors.

However, it is a fact that the vaccine has no ill-effects on the body.

Thus, he appealed to all concerned to get vaccinated at the earliest and free the state from the pandemic.

Rameshwor further stated that the pandemic has severely impacted the economic condition of the country and state.

As such, the only solution is to get vaccinated against the pandemic and work to return to normalcy, which would help restore all of the loss income, he asserted.

In a similar peculiar case, a 70-year-old woman from Maharashtra had claimed some days back that she partially regained her lost eyesight after taking the Covishield jab.

According to news agencies, the woman in question, Mathurabai Bidve from Maharashtra's Washim district, lost her eyesight to cataract nine years ago.

The disease caused her iris to turn white, and she lost sight in both eyes.

However, the very next day after she took the first dose of Covishield on June 26, she claimed that she got back thirty to forty percent of her sight in one eye.

Similarly, a man in Nashik as well as handful of people in Manipur claimed that they developed magnetic powers after vaccination.

In a video that went viral, the Nashik man identified as 71-year-old Arvind Sonar said metal objects were easily sticking on his body.

The family in an interview with a news channel later made it clear that they didn't make the video to spread misleading information about the vaccine, adding they never claimed vaccines were the reason for the strange phenomenon.

Sonar's son Jayant said, "We knew it was not really the vaccine as these objects did not stick to my mother's body.

We wanted to understand what is happening as my father is diabetic, so we spoke to a few people, and the media heard about it.

We only said we tried it out to see as per what the message stated but have not claimed it to be due to the vaccination".

Even as vaccine hesitancy persists in the country, a large portion of the population has already taken the jab against Covid-19 and in the process, some bizarre instances such as this have shown up from time to time.

The Press Information Bureau's (PIB) fact-checking arm, PIB Fact Check had said these claims about Covid-19 vaccines were "baseless".

The PIB also stated that the vaccine could not make people magnetic and that it was completely safe.

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