SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
Oscar Rebelo
Now, I’m freaking out. Two senior political figures, Dr Suresh Amonkar and Pascoal D’Souza have bid us adieu, courtesy COVID. Both had comorbid conditions. This little viper is getting too close for comfort and we better be prepared for war. So again a few thoughts, like straws trying to stand straight in a gale storm.
Get the REMDESIVIR/TOCILIZUMAB
This is not 100 %, but colleagues in Delhi and Mumbai are using this and swearing by it. No designer studies, no concrete scientific proof yet, but in many cases, it’s been the thin red line between life and death. It’s still not been used in Goa. But public pressure must mount to make these drugs available. Remember this one simple fact: rich, poor, famous, notorious, or VIP, in Goa, you get COVID and you are at the ESI hospital. Nowhere else. So these drugs must be available there. So my dear Pramod and Vishwajit, please, please get us these drugs. Nothing else will do.
Les touristes est arriveè
Whatever be our hare-brained economic reasons, for getting tourists in from the hot zones, be prepared for an almighty spike. I fully comprehend the desperate plight of the tourism industry that is truly bleeding. But one must be very careful. You drag this pandemic into the peak winter months, because of this short-sightedness, and Goa would comprehensively be out of sight and out of mind. You will kill the goose that kills the golden eggs. But then haven’t you done that already?
Asymptomatica
Most cases in Goa are asymptomatic contacts. And as Dr Edwin, sadly maskless, makes a relevant point. The mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic patients should be put up in local schools and community centres, monitoring one another, rather than flood the COVID hospital.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics
This will be the July to remember. This is the month that many of us will get exposed, without a doubt. Mask, shield, weekly HCQS, gloves, prayers (for those who know how to) and simply keep away from family and friends for at least this month. A VIP patient was in two private hospitals for around two weeks, unknowingly discovered to be COVID a week later. Not one, not a single contact, doctor, nurse, housekeeping, or otherwise turned out positive after two weeks of contact. All clean. Have we front line, petal infested, terribly frightened warriors got some level of immunity?
Bond together
We need to row in unison on this. Or else this boat will sink. So discipline, reaching out, keeping our nerve, being generous of mind, body and spirit, and following the rules. There can be no compromise. We remain at these 80 to 100 cases daily and don’t suddenly spike. Or we are submerged by the quicksand. As a medical professional, this has easily been the most fascinating and exhausting period of our lives. It is not the fear of contracting the virus which rattles us as much as the terror of exporting it to our loved ones. But somehow one gets that gut feeling that post-July or early August there is going to be a light at the end of a dark, gloomy and terrifying tunnel. Keep your fingers crossed and don’t touch the fingers to your face.
