PM Modi owns India’s unfolding Covid disaster: Bloomberg

‘As in so many of the pandemic’s worst-hit countries, this tragedy was avoidable — and is largely the fault of a boastful and incompetent government. Yet, judging by the fate of other bungling far-right politicians such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, the UK’s Boris Johnson, Hungary’s Viktor Urban, and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may well suffer few political consequences for his devastating missteps...

‘Yet, while Trump lost to Joe Biden in large part because of his callous and clueless handling of the pandemic, the margin was disturbingly narrow. Other strongmen look more likely to survive politically — and to continue to add to the toll of needless deaths.

‘For his part, Modi not only enjoys much higher approval ratings than Trump ever did. He has also survived, already, blunders that would have wrecked any other political career: demonetization in 2016 and a botched lockdown last year that caused the biggest and most desperate internal migration witnessed in India since 1947.

‘Modi has flourished with the help of something Trump never had and the likes of Boris Johnson only sporadically enjoys: a compliant media. Indeed, one reason why complacency about the virus spread so widely in India is that Modi personally asked owners and editors of press and television in March last year to focus on “positive” stories. Evidently, as his website put it, “it was important to tackle the spread of pessimism, negativity and rumor.”

Read here (Times of India, Apr 21, 2021)

Oral drug effective against Covid in hamsters, now in final stages of human trials: Study

‘An orally-administered antiviral drug initially developed to treat influenza can significantly decrease novel coronavirus levels in hamsters and is in the final stages of human trials, holding out promise of a pill to combat COVID-19, say researchers.

‘Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US and the University of Plymouth in the UK found that MK-4482, also called Molnupiravir, was effective when provided up to 12 hours before or 12 hours after infection with SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The drug can also decrease damage it causes to lungs, states the study conducted on hamsters.

‘Published in the journal Nature Communications on April 16, it suggests that treatment with MK-4482 could potentially mitigate high-risk exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and might be used to treat established SARS-CoV-2 infection alone or in combination with other agents. There are currently no drugs suitable for high-risk exposure use against SARS-CoV-2, the researchers said.’

Read here (Economic Times, Times of India, Apr 19, 2021)

Medical services restored to pre-Covid-19 level in Uttar Pradesh

‘Following the continuous decline in the number of Covid-19 cases and active infections, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed state medical colleges and institutions to fully restore all outpatient and in patient services.

‘The order issued by the chief minister’s office on Friday has to be implemented with immediate effect. “Following the decline in the prevalence of coronavirus pandemic, all outdoor and inpatient services must be restored at the earliest so that people in need can have access to the required help.” 

Read here (Times of India, Feb 13, 2021)

Protein behind corona’s slow Asia spread: Study

‘Deficiency in a particular human protein, which is more common in Europe and the United States than in Asia, could explain why coronavirus is not spreading as fast in Asian countries. A team of scientists from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani, West Bengal, have found a biological reason for the slower spread of a mutant of coronavirus in Asia compared to the West. The team has explained how higher levels of a human protein — neutrophil elastase — helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and also spread faster from infected individuals... 

“However, some naturally-occurring mutations in the AAT-producing gene results in deficiency of the AAT protein. This deficiency is known to be much higher in the Caucasians of Europe and America than among Asians,” said Majumder. “While we used AAT deficiency data from East Asia, along with North America and Europe, for the study, considering the pace at which the coronavirus is spreading, the numbers are representative of other Asian regions too, including India.”... 

‘As per their data, AAT deficiency is the least in East Asian countries — 8 per 1,000 individuals in Malaysia, 5.4 per 1,000 in South Korea, 2.5 in Singapore. On the other hand, 67.3 in per 1,000 individuals in Spain are AAT deficient, 34.6 in the UK and 51.9 in France and in the US it is prevalent in 29 individuals among 1,000.’

Read here (Times of India, Feb 9, 2021)