May, I kindly recall that in India particularly scientific temper has dangerously taken the back seat as faulty ritualism was practised in our fight against COVID-19 since March 2020. We were told by our Prime Minister to be patient for 21 days against our war against the COVID-19 virus. During the lockdown, the war akin to Covid-Mahabharata, we followed the rituals of making loud noises, with our thalis, broke glasses and plates, later we used lighted torches to scare the Corona virus away. All these rituals were supplemented by spraying down flower petals and divine water over health workers and those recovered in the Covid hospitals. To add a final nail to the coffin of our woes, wherein migrants were killed on their way to their homes due to starvation, exhaustion and isolation, we were forced upon the diktats of social distancing, wearing masks coupled with strict implementation of rules, which included heavy fines, beating by police, quarantine and a dose of questionable immunity boosters and urine therapy advocated by those in governance. Religious rituals which we Goans are so accustomed, were replaced by so called scientific ritualism, stated above.
The spread of the single strand RNA virus was more through dirty masks and currency notes. The science of biofouling, and the contagium of infectious air, masks and tradable items including paper currency was totally ignored and remained unaddressed.
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We wrongly used toxic sanitisers without checking the efficacy as well as its contents thus harming our skin, eyes and often ingested the toxicants more out of ignorance and fear not even realising that ethanol, isopropanol, triclosan, etc, in sanitiser bottles were responsible for the secondary respiratory infections as well as infecting micro-organisms. The growth in infections by Staphylococci, Streptococci, Klebsiella as secondary invaders was totally ignored as our population started suffering from skin, eye, tooth, ear, throat and lung infections due to dissemination of those bacteria, fungi and other viruses, as we focused only on the Covid tests and treatment, ignoring secondary invaders and comorbidity.
Amusingly, almost every secondary invading bacteria, causing septicaemia, lung infection, throat, nose, eye and skin infection was left unrecognised or untreated and death was attributed to the otherwise harmless COVID-19 virus, which does not produce toxins but uses our human epithelial cells to grow on and the deficiency in oxygen is caused by the faulty operating procedures dictated by the government of the day. It was only the orders of the then Governor of Goa that saw our Covid hospitals also address the protocol of comprehensive treatment of comorbidity and secondary infections, since the Govt of Goa was totally clueless of the essence of epidemiological sciences and a holistic approach to the tackling of a pandemic.
The story so far showed you as to how rituals, both pseudo-scientific as well as religious has destroyed us in India in general and Goa particularly. It is imperative that we understand rationality, realism and power to reason and question. This alone is the foundation and cornerstone of human development and the uplift of the modern society. Now that demonetisation, faulty GST, wrong tackling of COVID-19 and the hastily implemented 3 farm laws is slowly making the common man see reason and question the government of its incredulous decisions, which hurt the common man the most, we see light amidst darkness and question the government. The average Indian is questioning the govt as to why health workers are declining from taking the vaccine even though they are the frontline workers.
Today, we are embarking on the problem of ensuring that our country is free of the contagion of COVID-19 by vaccinating the entire country by the mass immunisation process by vaccines produced by two pharma majors — Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) and Serum Institute of India (Covishield). No assurance that these vaccines are generating immunogenicity and for how long. Mutants too pose a big question.
Various aspects of the sciences of vaccine preparation was dealt with in my article in Herald dated August 9, 2020 ‘Shunning nature’s vaccine compromises our Immunity’. Ever since Edward Jenner first inoculated his patient in 1796 with the pus of cow pox virus and opened the vistas of then new science of Immunology, to the present genetically engineered vaccines, there is a great transformation, where we first used inoculation only for the purpose of imparting immunological responses and viral resistance to the present day research wherein vaccines could now be used.
The realism today is going far further in the age of digital technology through the use of artificial intelligence. The finer aspects of gene engineering can practically not only monitor the health status but also understand the mental, hormonal and intrude into the finer socio-political details. Should those in governance be fascist in their approach and should we see a govt of a single party rule, vaccination could be used to distort and direct the thought processes in the society.
The general public across India is today on the crossroad of the scientific realism and scientific ritualism, as misuse of science has placed a huge dilemma – To take or not to take the vaccine. The issues of allergic responses, anaphylactic shocks, long time effects of the virus which is mutating at will, adverse effects of increasing pollution on human physiology raises serious questions.
Over the years, COVID-19 would be tamed and form the part of our RNA. Normally, before vaccination, we ought to have screened for hypersensitivities, allergies on patients with heart, kidney, lung, skin and physiological problems. Before vaccinating people, skin, eye allergic tests, besides blood analysis must be used as pre-screening prior to vaccination. Forcing vaccination without sound science is questionable as treatment could be worser than the disease.
(The writer is a retired University Professor and an Environmental Activist)
