Arming ourselves with knowledge to fight third wave
With an economic package on its way from the finance minister, it may seem we are limping back to business as usual—helped along by a bit of calibrated unlocking. The second wave has anyway dissipated to a large extent. Right? Well, maybe not quite. If the horrific sights of May ambushed us from behind—since we never kept a vigil—the least we can do is consciously try and avoid a repeat of history.
The Delta+ or AY.1 mutant has been lurking in our midst since at least the end of April, although we recognised it late. Haryana’s only “known” case of Delta+—whose reports have just come in—was actually down with symptoms in early May. Make no mistake: another debilitating wave of the pandemic is a distinct possibility. While vaccine coverage is central to our fortifications against this self-morphing foe—vaccine hesitancy even by prominent Supreme Court lawyers notwithstanding—the other key is genome sequencing. Real-time data is vital to our understanding of where Covid-19 is going. Also which way we, humanity as a whole, are destined to go. It’s only genome sequencing that will help us fi netune our vaccines. India should step up research on a war footing. Dispersed over such a vast host population, mutations will be proportionately higher here. Collaborating with the world scientifi c community may be the way to go if we do not possess the resources for this massive task. Bottom line is, the third wave can be fought back only if we arm ourselves with knowledge.
The fear that it may hit the youngest among us may be exaggerated—the ratio of infections among children stayed the same during the first and second waves—but then the absolute numbers are always terrifying in India. So yes, mask, vax, track, trace. But also put some money into buying insurance via science.