Day Twentyfive


Got apples and grapes today, for the first time during the lockdown. That and noticing the cobbler in his corner gave me a fleeting sense of normalcy. Many conditional relaxations have been announced for the rural areas, starting 20th April. E-commerce will be allowed for non-essential goods too. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters and similar self-employed people will be allowed to work. But cases continue to rise in Mumbai. And the morbidity rate of Mumbai is the highest. The explanation, following an audit of the deaths, is that people are getting admitted very late. Normalcy appears far away for Mumbai. Hydroxychloroquine is being given as a prophylactic to the high risk people in Dharavi. 

HCQ figured prominently in today’s Social Distance of The Atlantic, my go to podcast every morning. Katherine Wells and James Hamblin enlighten and entertain. I send them an appreciative tweet after listening to today’s podcast. The drug is polarising USA, with Trump and his cronies going on a propaganda overdrive. There is this brilliant insight in the podcast: I remember one time I had a conversation with someone who grew up in China, and we were talking about the misinformation in Chinese media and state-controlled media and things like that. And I was like, “Oh, that seems so disorienting.” And I remember she said, “Well, in China, we just know not to trust it. But in the U.S., you still actually believe the things you hear.”

The redoubtable Scientific American has a lowdown on the current status of the various treatment approaches to COVID-19
Chloroquine and Hydrochloroquine
Remdesivir
Ritonavir and Lopinavir
Plasma Therapy
53 severely ill patients were given Remdesivir as part of a “compassionate use” program; after receiving the drug, more than half the patients on ventilators were taken off, and 47% of the patients were discharged from the hospital. Gilead is conducting multiple trials for Remdesivir and will release more data in May,

 Kerala has kicked off the first convalescent plasma therapy in the country. The plasma obtained from the blood of a recovered COVID19 patient is infused to a critically ill patient to confer a possible immunity. It is a measure of desperation and ICMR hasinvited proposals to launch clinical trials in the next 2 weeks. 

Meanwhile Vaccine continues to the best hope in the long run. Many vaccine candidates are in the race now. Current edition of Babbage has an excellent story on vaccine.

Why a coronavirus vaccine could take way longer than a year


And there are reports that China used traditional Chinese medicine in 90% of its COVID19 patients with astounding success. But much of it is myth and not verified scientifically. China wants to hold it up with pride as part of its culture and also export it to other countries. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World's First Vaccine?

Russia appears have won the vaccine race. Putin says his own daughter has been inoculated with the vaccine that has been codenamed Sputnik V . But many experts are sceptical and are expressing concerns about the lack of transparency. Russians say 20 countries have shown interest in the vaccine and that commercial production will begin next month. The vaccine has been developed by Gamaleya Research Institute in collaboration with the Defence Ministry. Meanwhile Phase 3 trials of the Oxford Vaccine will begin soon at 17 sites in India. 
Read more

Day Six

Image
A very disquieting day. Many years ago I had watched, Winter Light, the 2 nd film in Bergman’s Faith Trilogy. The film is a searing questioning of God’s existence. It has a character killing himself because he was disturbed that China is building an atom bomb. I never understood it then. But today it became clear when I revisited the film. My blood boils when I hear about China sitting pretty and getting back to normal after exporting their nasty virus all over the world.  Very conscious about sneezing. Almost afraid that neighbours would have heard it. While clearing my throat with my mouth slightly open, I saw a projectile hitting the wash basin 6 foot away. So 6-foot physical distancing makes sense. The other day I read a tweet that Social Distancing should be rephrased as Physical Distancing to avoid social stigma, which is emerging as a serious concern. I was thinking of an electrostatically charged “bubble” in which we can go out safely into public spaces. And I s...
Read more

Day Eightythree

Pandemic was not the kind of emergency that required industries to shut down at 4 hours notice and leave unsupervised for several weeks at a stretch. Especially chemical industry. Every chemical plant needs time to be shut down safely and for being properly mothballed for a long lockdown. This could be several hours or few days, depending on the type of plant. Annual shutdown lasts a maximum of 4 weeks and pesonnel are always present at the site during this period. A long shutdown of the kind we experienced during the pandemic presents several problems to a chemical plant. Material left behind in tanks and pipelines may start degrading, corroding, congealing, polymerising etc. Storage tanks may need continuous cooling. Each plant has to develop special SOP to handle a long, largely unattended shutdown. Authorities should recognise this and give time for chemical plants to shut down safely and allow staff to access the plant during this time. Some plants may also need periodic monitor...
Read more