COVID 19 : Heightened Fear, Is it Warranted?

COVID 19 : Heightened Fear, Is it Warranted?

The Corona Virus (on which I have already written three blogs), first known by the name of Novel Corona Virus (nCoV) and subsequently renamed COVID19, has resulted in more than 4500 deaths and affected nearly 125000 people in 121 countries. Notwithstanding the fact that WHO has not yet classified it as a pandemic, the global fear of the virus is palpable and it is no different in India. As soon as I landed in Kolkata today late evening (11.30PM), I received a message from my colleague, Mr Umesh Kumar, who enquired whether we have to close some of our facilities at our science centre for public, namely Science Odyssey, Simulator and 3D shows, in line with the decision of the Kerala Government to close cinema theatres. Is this fear justified? Personally I feel it is not, but then we will abide by the health advisories.

The fear for contagious diseases are as old as human civilisation and the ongoing fear of the Corona virus is another example. Fortunately ever since the beginning of the last century the global community has almost always come together to combat such contagious diseases, some of which have even been eliminated from the face of the Earth. Take for example the crippling disease Polio, the very mention of this disease, not until long ago, would send spine cracking fear among people. But then Polio is no longer feared, rather it has more or less been completely wiped out, including from India, which has remained polio free for nearly six years. Therefore I personally feel that we must not fall prey to the unduly heightened fear that is getting played out in most national and international media, majorly on social media platforms. 

Speaking about fear mongering on social media, I am reminded of Dr Gagandeep Kang, FRS, an eminent scientist, who spoke recently in Delhi on the pandemic of infectious diseases, particularly highlighting the current Corona Virus outbreak. She spoke on a new phenomenon, which she described as an ‘Infodemic’, a fake information that becomes viral on the social media on matters pertaining to diseases like the Corona Virus. She stressed that ‘fake or false information on medical issues are as bad as the pandemic itself’ and appealed to the people to be circumspect. She was delivering a special talk on ‘Preparedness, Response, and Research when Epidemics and News go Viral’. 

Elaborating on the drivers that spread epidemics, she said, “Today’s world is deeply connected, and people are in direct contact all the time. In such a scenario, epidemics are and will continue to become more frequent, more complex, and harder to prevent and contain”. Current demographic transitions, driven by population growth, rapid urbanization, deforestation, globalization of travel and trade, climate change and political instability have fundamental effects on the dynamics of infectious diseases. She said that in a changing world, these drivers ensure that pathogens can and will cross barriers and spread in increasingly unpredictable ways.

Dr. Kang pointed out how, in the last two decades SARS, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19 outbreaks have shown that our concept of epidemics must evolve from crisis response during individual outbreaks to an integrated cycle of preparation, response, and recovery. “For rapidly evolving, high-impact events, preparedness, and collaborations designed and defined ahead of the outbreak are essential to bring together communities, responders, and researchers who do not currently interact,” she added.

 “Preparation, as with platform technologies for vaccines and diagnostics for sharing data and samples, sequencing and capacity for new diagnostics, can be key drivers of rapid innovation for tools to protect our populations,”  She highlighted about the international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a public-private coalition which is working by coordinating resources of academia, industry, and governments, prioritizing platform technologies and facilitating advanced developments for emerging infectious diseases to derail epidemics by speeding up the development of vaccines. She emphasised that confidence in our health systems, our agencies, and our scientists is vital in protecting our people and in advancing science to enable the development of technologies to protect the world. She cited the successful example of MenAfrivac, a vaccine developed by India, which completely eradicated the Meningitis disease from Sub Sahara Africa. She said that “We have a lot to be proud of but a lot more to do.”

WHO has on its website a short video, which explains what inspired global scientists to take up the challenge of developing a vaccine for meningitis ( MenAfrivac), which could potentially eliminate meningococcal A epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. The film describes the initial search for a manfucturer willing to produce a vaccine at a price affordable for Africa and the interntational partnership that led to the vaccine's development within a decade. 

The MenAfrivac vaccine example, which eradicated the deadly meningitis, shows us how well the global community has come together in the hour of crisis to combat such situations. I am therefore certain that collectively we will definitely do so even now and in future as well with science and technology as our guiding force. We must therefore, instead of panicking, blaming and finger pointing, even worse, rumourmongering, re-emphasise that it is time for exhibiting exemplary global solidarity — political, financial and scientific - for collectively combating this menace. The current situation has once again provided us an opportunity for yet another global solidarity and a joint consolidated efforts by nations, which can set aside political, idealogical and other differences,  to fight this common enemy (COVID19) that has no respect for borders. 

It is also time for all of us - particularly our global leaders - to ensure that we collectively support all health workers and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to pool all possible global strength and resources to bring this outbreak to an end. And also collaborate in bringing together the best of global scientists for using all the scientific infrastructures that is at their command to produce their best science to find shared answers to all our shared problems, which in the instant case is this deadly COVID19. Hopefully the day is not very far off, when the collective efforts of global community will yield results and will lead to the development of a vaccine, which will not only help in preventing recurrence of this menace in future years, but also will wipe out this deadly virus. 

—————+++++++++—————+++++++++————-++++++—-