Prevention is better than cure. It’s time again to be careful and cautious not to get inflicted by the new Covid-19 variant that’s again raising anxiety levels. Less than 700 daily cases were reported in various hospitals a day ago, showing a slight decline from the highest number of infections in a single day on May 21. Yet, governments are putting the people on alert and advising them to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour –meaning wearing of masks, avoiding crowded places etc. It’s a matter of relief that the JN.1 sub-variant is reckoned to be less harmful even as it’s “spreading fast.”
Notably, the first Covid-19 hit in India came shortly after China reported its first case from Wuhan in December, 2019. What started as a trickle snowballed into the worst-ever health emergency for the nation, the geographical region and across the world but affecting especially life in the US and Europe for a couple of years. To India’s credit, it managed to come up with its own brand of vaccines from two labs in Pune and Hyderabad, ensuring easy availability and facilitating exports to other needy nations as well. Covid-19 was thought to be an old story in recent months and the nation regained a sense of confidence. The national as well as global economy mostly recovered from the adverse impacts of Covid-19. With four deaths confirmed in the present spell, however, the fear factor is again creeping in. Both India and the world have by now gained adequate experience to handle such a huge humanitarian crisis. This would help humanity deal with a similar crisis in future.
Notably, there were those who fished in troubled waters, mainly the private sector hospitals. Hospitals and health care professionals as a whole, bore the brunt of the pandemic’s assaults. Yet, many private hospitals minted money by way of Covid-tests and related treatments. Caught in a major crisis, the health authorities could not invoke the regulatory mechanism for much of the affected period. The prices fixed for the vaccines were high even as the government itself went for bulk purchases and distributed the vaccines to hospitals across states. When firms like the Serum Institute and the Bharat Biotech raised the nation’s confidence level, the huge profits they minted from the sales at that critical hour was unjustified. The nation bore the brunt by paying through its nose. Also, fears persist about the long-term adverse impacts of these vaccines, which were produced and supplied without adequate periods of trials. Rumours that heart attacks and other ailments are being caused to those who took the vaccines might not be evidence based as yet, however, it is important now to revisit all such concerns25
