Don’t treat Goans as ‘guinea pigs’, warns Cong

Team Herald

PANJIM: The Congress has warned the government not to treat Goans as ‘guinea pigs’ after Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant claimed that Goa is the first State to integrate allopathy and Ayurveda to treat COVID-19 patients and suspects.

Chief Minister’s claim also attracted the attention of Goa Forward Party (GFP) President Vijay Sardesai and Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte, who questioned scientific basis for ayurvedic treatment on COVID-19 patients.

“Use of Ayurveda for COVID-19. Has GoI Health Ministry and IEC approved the medicines? Has @moayush got approval from @WHO for such treatment? Will @goacm reveal details of claims made by him? Let us not use Goans as Guinea Pigs,” Kamat tweeted.

At a daily press briefing on Thursday, CM had said that in coordination with a medical team comprising of allopathy and Ayurveda, government had started giving Ayurveda to COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine, to boost their immunity.

Sardesai and Khaunte quizzed the scientific basis on Ayurveda treatment as they also took to micro blogging site to raise concern. “While I do acknowledge the benefits of Ayurveda, I’m forced to ask what ‘treatment’ @goacm gave to COVID-19 patients. What scientific basis does this have? What medical study supports this? Is some kind of experiment being done on goenkars? Does @visrane (Health Minister Vishwajit Rane) endorse, support this?” Sardesai wrote.

Khaunte sought to know if Chief Minister received formal approval from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare besides World Health Organisation (WHO) and other concerned agencies to integrate Ayurveda with authorised COVID-19 treatment. “We cannot risk the life of people with treatments that lack proven scientific study,” the former minister said.

Amidst this debate, Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik conveyed CM’s statement on the social media and also took the opportunity to state Homeopathy also has important role to fight against the deadly infection.

He wrote on Twitter, “Today, as the entire world fights against COVID-19 virus, traditional medicines including Homeopathy have important role to play against it. I am sure Homeopathy will continue its endeavour to bring best out of it, to overcome the threat posed by COVID-19.”

Naik’s earlier statement that Prince Charles, who was infected with the virus, was cured by Ayurveda saw outright denial from the Prince’s office.