‘Two months ago, Sandhya Ramanathan began posting videos on how to manage Covid-19 at home. They were made for her family overseas, in countries where managing the virus was difficult: the UK, US and India.
‘One went, pardon the pun, viral. She filmed the 18-minute video in one take, trying to get out the key messages before she got onto packing her son's bag for school camp. Her legs were asleep by the end of it. Today, that video has almost 360,000 views on YouTube and millions on WhatsApp, where it was shared first with Ramanathan's cousins and then with the rest of the world, desperate for a way to prepare for the pandemic.
‘She'd been looking into ways to treat Covid-19 at home because she knew this is where most people would be dealing with it. One way to save lives – both directly and by reducing the strain on hospitals – is to keep mild cases mild, instead of letting them get worse. "You have to actively treat it, you can't just lie down in bed," says Ramanathan.
‘When she made the video, she took care to outline methods of treatment that didn't involve trips to the doctor or expensive equipment. "I'm just thinking of the people in India, who have no access to a doctor," she says.’
Read here (NZ Herald, Aug 19, 2020)
Watch video here (Youtube, June 14, 2020)