It is over a year that Goa in particular and India in general is battling hard to wipe off Covid-19 from the national scenario. The Indian Prime Minister and many scientists and doctors, especially those medical practitioners were either professing social distancing, quarantining or masking their face, to avoid or evade the Covid-19 virus. Being a deeply religious country, our citizenry and the government enforced dubious guidelines as a matter of scientific ritualism. Those standard operating procedures were thrust upon us, in sequential manner, over the year which made the common man weary, tired and psychologically distressed. The health, both mental as well as the physical of the society started deteriorating. We forgot the mantra ‘A healthy mind grooms a healthy body’. With stress increasing, our immune system started deteriorating. Due to masks, dirty with prolonged usage led to our alveola sacs collapsing, resulting in lower supply of oxygen exchange and severe weakening of our body’s defence mechanisms.
With compromised immunogenic responses, many Indians in particular suffered secondary infections, which aggravated to noso-comical infections during hospitalisation. We must understand the basics of both virology and immunology to appreciate both pathogenesis and cure of all infectious and contagious diseases. Being in the field of Microbiology for over 50 years and going steady at seventy five, I must assert that micro-organisms, including viruses have over 300 to 800 million years of evolutionary history. Both the RNA and DNA viruses have already been integrated into our human genome as transposons or palindromic sequences. Even mito chondria in the human body which is an organelle that produced energy in the form of Adenosinetri phosphate (ATP) is a bacterium integrated into our body during our evolutionary history of two hundred thousand years.
The reason why I am furnishing these details is to enlighten my readers that we would never ever succeed to wipe viruses off the face of the earth. The Modi mantra of Covid-19 Mahabharata of 21 days is just a bull jhumla. I strongly advocate that we must learn to live and let live genetic biodiversity. What cannot be cured must be endured. In my earlier articles in Herald I had covered in detail, as to how we can scientifically conduct ourselves in tropical Goa. I recommend you to reread ‘Human responses to Covid-19’ (Herald, September 17, 2020) and ‘Goa must meet the challenges of viral infectivity’ (Herald, February 4, 2020). For the last one year, I have insisted upon that the best approach to remain free of diseases is by directly confronting the pathogen in sub optimal conditions and below threshold doses often found in the environment, and generating thus innate or acquired immunity. When we challenge bacteria with antibiotics, the instinct for survival makes these bacteria ‘drug resistant’, which is today a huge challenge for the doctors who randomly prescribe drugs without conducting bio-assays and sensitivity tests to antibiotics.
Today, as we are embarking on the Covid-19 vaccination programme in two phases using Pfizer’s Covishield and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech Ltd, we have strong proofs and evidences that there are hundreds of mutants and variants of Covid-19 in different parts of India; and hence a big question? Before administration of vaccines, we have not done any screening or determination by skin tests. This is to prevent hypersensitivity, allergies or analyphylactic shocks of vaccination. Those taking vaccines have not done any baseline study by serological tests to determine the levels of antibodies produced by the vaccinated person. By determining the amount of antibodies produced before vaccination, after receiving the first dose and the number of antibodies, we would know the efficacy of the vaccine.
We assume that the results in the trials run and now administered vaccine is or must be the same. This is a wrong assumption. The vaccine often degenerates on storages, transportation and administered reactions vary from person to person. The longevity of the vaccine and the period for which the immunity is bestowed is not yet known. The mutant could well be able to keep us all napping and generate secondary infections as viruses are able to play hide and seek with our defence systems. Since diet, sunlight and the environment is our core competence we must walk freely in our beaches, open parks, hills and shun western lifestyles.
In Goa, particularly, let us eat berries (boras, kantam, jamun, chunas, cashew and coconut neero, guava, ambadas, amlas) to help our body to be strong, healthy and fit. Let our body fight or play with the viruses just as, I see my cat play with the mice.
The most important scientific principle that we as Goans particularly, must understand and adopt is to respect Mother Nature and humbly enjoy the bounties we have as Goans received to date. With adulterated food, contaminated fruits and vegetables, concrete jungles in low lying areas, formalin in fish or sewage in our rivers, or industrial effluents of hazardous chemicals will destroy our cellular immunogenic responses.
Senseless coal imports and mindless double tracking will destroy lives of Goans for posterity. Development must essentially be of mind and body. Electricity generating Tamnar project would destroy us by the destruction of our biodiversity, with hazardous radiations as man, animal and environment in Goa is a well knit one. Mother Nature either blesses or curses us for our deeds. There is no forgiveness by Mother Nature. We must fight with blood to save our blood or else the Hum Do along with Hamara Do will doom Goa for eternity and put a severe peril on the Indian Nation. Say yes to sunlight and Vit D and refuse coal at all costs.
(The writer is a retired University Professor and an Environmental activist)
