Till the cure comes
There is no comparison to how a new decade's priorities have changed for the entire world. The main agenda today is to successfully synthesise a viable vaccine for COVID-19 that has brought societies and economies to a complete halt. While science takes its course, nations stand perplexed at the rising number of cases. Combatting a pandemic is one thing and combatting it without any effective defence is another. The fact that medical fraternity throughout the world can, at best, administer symptomatic treatment is agonising. There have been heated deliberations on whether existing drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine or Remdesivir can produce favourable results or not. At the same time, the convalescent plasma therapy has also been under the spotlight following a few success stories. But none appear to be full-proof weapons against Covid-19 and hence are not officially prescribed by any country. In India, the convalescent plasma therapy did yield a successful treatment of a critically-ill patient in New Delhi's Max Hospital who was later discharged. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare sounded a cautionary note that the therapy is still in an experimental phase and could create life-threatening complexities in a Covid-19 patient. Currently, only those hospitals are conducting clinical trials of plasma therapy that form part of a study group under ICMR. Any other medical facility practising it could face legal action. Naturally, there should not be any rush in administering such treatment unless scientifically backed and officially prescribed. Everyone well acknowledges that we are racing against time. Each passing day adds more bodies to the morgue. But at the same time, science cannot be rushed to gratify human desires, at least not of this sort. Globally, reports of vaccine candidates entering clinical phase 1 have been done in record time. Any more rushing could make way for lapses; medicine is not a subject where we can afford lapses. Any error, even of minuscule scale, could prove utterly costly.
The summer is bound to be a heated quest for developing vaccines and India could play a significant role in that quest. The vaccine candidate — ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 — developed by Oxford University which moved into the first phase of clinical trials last week has been undertaken for mass production by the Serum Institute of India. If Oxford trials yield positive results in humans, as it did in animals, Serum's bid to produce nearly 60 million doses of the potential vaccine could be a world-changing step. Not just Oxford, the Institute has also partnered with Codagenix (US) and Themis (Austria) on two separate vaccine candidates primarily due to its reputation for cost-effective mass production. There could be even more candidates but the same would take time. And, here, each passing day registers a new rise in cases and deaths. Till Covid-19 vaccines are a thing, social distancing and symptomatic treatment appear to be our best shot. As unsettling as it may be to imagine life post-lockdown and still without a cure, it remains inevitable. Therefore, even if the curve is flattened today by lockdown and strict regulations, there is no telling what will happen tomorrow. There can be a spike in cases again, as prime minister validated in his meeting with the CMs, in June-July. It means there is no room for complacency. While the medical fraternity continues to experiment with anti-viral drugs and therapies that may help the humankind in this pandemic, governments and societies have to adapt to a new normal that has been forced upon us. While the government resuscitates the economy, society ought to regulate its lifestyle. The world cannot be the same as it was unless this virus is eradicated. And, every country's performance henceforth rests on the compliance of its people to decisions that a prudent government takes in the public interest.
