And for a Friday as the Nation is progressively getting out of the third wave, some thoughts..… some musings.….
Unlike the first and particularly different from the second wave, this third wave swept across the country like a Tsunami, starting with Mumbai and Delhi early January and then across all states. Within about 25 days Omricron had impacted almost every district, reaching its peak around end of Jan and a sudden fall in cases by 15th Feb. Every city has reported almost full recovery. Restrictions imposed on interstate and area access have all been removed. Schools are mostly getting into hybrid operations and travel, hospitality and entertainment sectors slowly but surely opening up. Many friends, colleagues and close family were impacted including infants. But in most cases the severity of infection was for 2 to 3 days with mild fever, throat irritation, headache and tiredness. With a week to ten days quarantine, treatment was just paracetamol. The brand DOLO got into every family’s lexicon.
What the future beholds is still ambiguous. One highly avoidable source of information is the “What’s-Up” university. Same with TV news anchors who love sensationalism. Purely for TRPs, psychological impact on patients and their families be damned. I recommend to strictly follow the two highly respectful Indian scientific bodies. NTAGI (National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) are currently evaluating the values and efficacy of all vaccines and their relative importance, particularly since the third wave was 97% only Omricron. The new Vaccination policy will be announced shortly. The other body is INSACOG ( Indian SARS -CoV.2 Genome Consortium). Across the country, they are undertaking Genomic surveillance of vaccination cases and sero-prevalence studies. We should not be guided by some of the rich countries wherein the Pharma-Insurance lobby are canvassing and promoting third, followed by fourth booster doses. In some cases these unnecessary boosters have caused adverse affects. Based on local conditions our Indian scientists will prescribe the correct way forward. Hopefully already Covid has reached some sort of Endemicity stage in India.
Let’s all hope and pray for the end of the Pandemic. Let’s get on with life. But at least for this whole year, masking and taking safety precautions in crowded areas is a must. Let’s be vigilant, the precautionary way, the caring way, the SEEGOS way.