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Monday, 2 November 2020 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Threatening people, scare mongering, behaving as if we were bipolar or worse in our optics and messaging is hardly professional – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
I sent an unsolicited piece to Daily FT Editor Nisthar Cassim which was published on 4 April. Once more another unsolicited piece is being dispatched to him with the hope it will be carried. Why? Several reasons.
Out of the blue we got to know about a lady working at Brandix testing positive leading to a surge. The potential source perhaps has been identified. The second cluster sprang at the fish market. A bit like in China but with far less consequences. Did we stop testing at wholesale locations such as Dambulla, economic centres, fish markets, bus stations, railway stations, etc.? What preventive medicine did we practice?
Responding to the surge
With the hike of daily cases reported, we have a decision to start with home-based care for first contacts. Great. The Government has allocated 10,000 per family for rations via GAs for families being treated from home.
What is the treatment regime? A doctor, Secretary of a Union, went on TV to say how we do this all the time, for example with chicken pox. He added some need only Panadol and listed two further stages requiring greater attention. True. The same doctor can be heard on other days saying the next 72 hours, 48 hours would be critical. In both instances, he knows how many or what overwhelming percentage cannot be treated with Panadol without the benefit scientific tests.
If a doctor is an alarmist, perhaps we need to consult an Ayurvedic physician who is not, something the President has advocated. The Department of Ayurveda was coming out with two types of medicine to help. The Cabinet Co-Spokesperson, a Doctor, explained in great deal the virtues of black tea taken regularly. Earlier on we have heard the morning sun and or high doses of vitamin D would help boost the immune system. Medicine is a science. In our first outing with COVID-19 how many were treated with Panadol, the anti- malaria tablet or required oxygen and ICU care? What were recovery times? What were and are, our treatment regimes? Shouldn’t these inform us all? We are scared patients will infect hospitals. What if the OPD were to go out to community settings? We can dispense the regular medicines, pick up coughs, colds, and fever early. We don’t overwhelm health facilities, we give courage and hope to our populace. We have enough vehicles and cadre to make this happen. Does that not make sense?
Threatening people, scare mongering, behaving as if we were bipolar or worse in our optics and messaging is hardly professional.
I come from a tradition where my forefathers slung their stethoscopes around their necks and went to treat people. I have contempt for those with the MBBSs and more who behave as if they are deranged. It’s rank stupidity coming at great cost to all of us at time when we can scarcely afford it.
Omar Khan has written two pieces recently in the Daily FT. To quote some passages:
“The website of the CDC in the US ‘confesses’ the same, saying that ‘detection’ of viral residue is not proof of a live, active infection. The website of the CDC in the US ‘confesses’ the same, saying that ‘detection’ of viral residue is not proof of a live, active infection. As he explains, the PCR test ‘amplifies’ genetic material ‘in cycles’. The fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of the virus (viral load). The higher the viral load, the greater the likelihood for contagiousness.
Currently, doctors are not given the ‘cycle threshold’, which is the number of amplification cycles needed to ‘detect’ the virus. Yet that is needed to know how.” “The suggestion by the GMOA to a) separate how we treat those who are asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic, and in clear medical crisis; b) to shift how we treat and quarantine them based on that; and c) to standardise the quality of PCR testing laboratories was to me, a model of medical clarity and sanity.” “With Lanka having managed COVID quite brilliantly, why impose economic desperation, isolation, financial ruin, uncertainty, on a people and a populace, who are well placed to be exemplars, ideally placed in fact to be at the forefront of regional recovery, especially if we focus on health and survival against meaningful metrics and not hallucinatory aims like virus elimination, which run contrary to nature itself?” “Please anyone tell me why this suggests we should persecute and punish ourselves, rather than be grateful, build on our successes, and let our people and immune systems and expertise come together to help us all win?”
