The Myanmar junta is looking harness the chiretta plant, used in traditional medicine, to make their own COVID-19 vaccine following junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s comment that the country would be impoverished if it had to buy the current vaccines being used.

Union Minister for Health Dr Thet Khaing Win, appointed by the military council, has instructed scientists to formulate the COVID-19 vaccine with the chiretta plant used in Myanmar traditional medicine.

Union Minister Dr Thet Khaing Win gave directives at the meeting of the military council on COVID-19 Disease Prevention on September 2, according to newspapers issued by military council.

“In the treatise of Medicinal plants titled Mar Da Wa Nidan, it is found to be used in combination with traditional medicine containing chiretta plant for various ailments. Such traditional medicines should be revived and used for THE Coronavirus disease (COVID-19),” the union minister said.

Dr. Thet Khaing Win also offered instructions to cultivate a large number of chiretta plants with advanced technology for long-term use if the COVID-19 vaccine made from the plant is effective.

It was said that the medical research on COVID-19 will be conducted in collaboration with the Medical Research Department and the Military Council Medical Research Corps.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing also ordered the production of a COVID-19 vaccine with traditional medicine, saying that if the country had to buy the COVID-19 vaccine for 50 million people, the country would be impoverished.

While outside observers may look askance at these suggestions, particularly given Myanmar’s previous forays into homegrown production of agricultural products, as seen in the case of Than Shwe’s push for producing biofuel in the early 2000s, there is growing evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines on the market not only do no work but are prone to prompting a large number of adverse side effects.

A growing number of health professionals and lawyers around the world are calling for an immediate halt to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout as the numbers of voluntary accounts of adverse effects around the world reportedly run into the millions, with particular concern over children being found with cases of myocarditis. Hospitals in a number of countries are finding many of the people brought in for COVID-19 have been double-vaccinated.