The news that few cases of the new Omicron variant which is said to have a shorter incubation period and faster spread than the previous COVID infections are a matter of concern. However, we have enough experience now from the past and should utilise that for the prevention of COVID and the promotion of good health. In the past, even a few scientists had predicted that Pandemics come and go every time and then. That time we had probably forgotten the Spanish Flu Pandemic nearly 100 years ago which had caused immense misery and millions of deaths. At that time the knowledge of medical science was not as advanced as we have now. Despite the warning of a few scientists, the issue was not taken that much seriously. Therefore, the world was ill-prepared to meet such an eventuality. There was a lack of medicines, hospital staff, equipment as well as vaccines to prevent the COVID in the future. As a result, we faced several serious issues globally, but in our country, the poor people were at the receiving end. Governments all over tried to hide their data about COVID.
Meanwhile, the pharma companies made huge profits even during such a serious health catastrophe. Medicines, masks, sanitizers, and other such equipment were sold at higher prices. Glaring inequity was observed in Healthcare and vaccines between the developed and developing countries. Smaller countries that were forced to procure vaccines from the big vaccine-producing giants were blackmailed. Pointing out this Dr. Samir Malhotra from PGI Chandigarh said that the COVID-19 scare forced many Governments to enter into contracts with companies developing vaccines. Many of these contracts had confidentiality clauses according to which the company was exempted “from any civil liability for serious side effects arising from the use of the vaccine, indefinitely”. Not only that, and this is shocking, these countries were asked to “put up sovereign assets as collateral to guarantee indemnity”. Such assets could include embassy buildings, cultural assets, etc. We still remember the threat given by then-US President Trump to India if it did not supply Chloroquine to the US.
We expect such inequities not to happen in the future but there is no guarantee of it. The companies have profit only as their motive. They justify the high pricing of drugs because they have to spend on research. To continue their exploitation the global powers brought in Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the various clauses of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The situation at present demands a complete revamping of such clauses which prohibit developing countries from manufacturing cheap medicines/vaccines. For our country, it is all the more important to rejuvenate and strengthen our public-sector pharmaceutical industry with the purpose to produce cheap drugs/vaccines for local and global supply. It is all more important to avoid unscientific ideas like the use of cow urine and cow dung to treat Corona infection. Further, false hopes can be counterproductive. The Prime Minister in his speech in March 2020 had said that we will defeat Corona in 21 days. Such unscientific utterings do not help. In the case of health, emergency let health science prevail.
