What piques your interest about Till We Win: India’s Fight Against The Covid-19 Pandemic is that the non-fiction has been penned by three doctors who want to clear the uncertainty brought to us by COVID-19 and give us hope. The trinity consists of Dr Gagandeep Kang an infectious disease researcher, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, a leading public policy and health systems expert.
“I don’t want people to jump and read the last part of the book; however, if you have read the book, the closing sentence is ‘Together we can create a better and healthier world for everyone’ and that’s what the book is all about,” says Dr Lahariya, calling this as a book of hope, and adds, “I hope this book has long-term relevance. It is useful for all of us and also for the next generation, who in time ahead would be interested in knowing and understanding the pandemic.”
Overall, the book is for the people, political leaders, policymakers and physicians, with the promise and potential to transform public health and strengthen Indian healthcare system. The book focuses as much about staying safe in the pandemic, providing information on vaccines and therapies. “We have discussed how community and citizen participation is essential for good health; the need for improved mental health services, relevance of increased government spending on health, and why India needs to have a wide network of primary and public health care facilities.”
Dr Lahariya says that with the book, the authors wanted to address the ‘info-demic’ and associated challenges of stigma, which comes with misinformation and incomplete information. “We have written this book to empower citizens with relevant information about the virus, and how we can fight the pandemic together. Through this book, we wish that this momentum is sustained, and lessons are used to strengthen the Indian healthcare system. That is very much possible and doable.” The silver lining in these pandemic times is “that health as a subject has received unprecedented attention from even top level elected leaders,” he says.
Talking about the recent surge in numbers in Delhi, Dr Kang points that it was driven by behaviour and perhaps that was a failure in communication above anything else. “To avoid future waves, Delhi needs to consider what can be done to improve living conditions, including adequate shelter and sanitation for all, since test-trace and isolate are difficult to implement in densely populated households. Also, build plans for engaging citizens in local decision-making that is data-driven, plan for surge capacity and resilience within the health system and facilitate engagement and communication across all stakeholders. Future disease control is not feasible in a democracy, unless it is participatory.”
The major challenge pertaining to the vaccine, says Dr Kang, is funding. “To be able to purchase enough to get the diagnostics, vaccines and drugs to where they are needed, for countries to quickly have the systems for surveillance, policies for disease control, strengthened hospitals and human resources and for usage of vaccines when they are available.” This will be a long haul as science and technology are just the tools, but there needs to be the systems, processes and policies for sustained implementation. According to her, “There is no going back to any form of ‘normal’ unless we work together.”
In a nutshell
Overall, the book is for the people, political leaders, policymakers and physicians, with the promise and potential to transform public health and strengthen Indian healthcare system. The book focuses as much about staying safe in the pandemic, providing information on vaccines and therapies.
Till We Win
India’s Fight Against The Covid-19 Pandemic by
Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, Dr Gagandeep Kang, Dr Randeep Guleria
Publisher Penguin Random House
Pages: 352
Price: Rs 299