Tag: Coronavirus

A dubious distinction

The US has reached a dubious distinction of being a global leader in having 4 million cases of Coronavirus. What leads to this grim scenario? Often, outsiders wonder what is causing this vulnerability. I shared a different perspective on the factors contributing to this grim scenario. In my opinion, there are several factors that contribute to these dismal figures. Understanding the failure is as important as understanding the success, it is through failures that we get a glimpse of success as it offers us an understanding of modeling success and our collective behavior. In this article, I have made attempts to capture aspects across major democracies that offer an insight into success and failure.

The US – then 4 million coronavirus cases. The US is the global leader in Covid-19 cases, followed by Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. The statistics run like this –

99 days to reach 1 million
43 days to reach 2 million
28 days to reach 3 million
15 days to reach 4 million
… days to reach 5 million

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data?country=USA~BRA~IND~RUS~GBR~OWID_WRL

A global leader again (pun intended), how could a country reach such epic proportions of the disease in just 180 days. At least 143,820 people have died across the country. Where is the indiscretion? Is it that the population is vulnerable? Or are we following flawed models of prevention?

Let me cite an example – my HOA asked me to fix the turf, stating it is an essential service. Of course, I responded saying why it is not but this is a reflection of a flawed model being followed.

A confusion between essential and non-essential is the major factor. Another aspect that is scientific activism by gullible people called ‘Corona Mixer’. It is akin to a flawed model of Herd Immunity followed in the UK, Sweden, and few other countries, where COVID-19 eventually exploded.

Third, fatigue from indoor has wrongly motivated several families to stride outside. Of course, a gullible common man cannot see the 54 million viruses that were just sprayed by an unexpected asymptomatic person in the vicinity that followed that infects other innocent bystanders as it drifts along the path of air currents.

There are more factors to the proliferation of the disease. Another complex issue is Political liberalism and assertion for a cause. Subversion or a feeling of being subverted is causing people to rebel and aggregate. Incorrect policies and guidance by WHO and other policy-making bodies is another contributing aspect factor.

Policies – a bedrock for containment: Policies offer a solid fabric for control and on the converse is equally true that not having consistent machinery to execute policies is an equal deterrent. I will shy to quote an example from a major city from central India where a breakdown of communication amongst the policy executioners resulted in a flare-up of COVID across the town. Remember, if only the infected (symptomatic and asymptomatic) can strictly isolate, we can contain the virus.

Indore a success story

We have several success stories from around the globe but visit CovidRxExchange to learn about, Indore – A Success Story. You will see how a metropolitan city controlled the disease at the outset with a well-executed policy and a diligent team of doctors.

Can we change this? Possibly that’s the Midas touch that would delay and possibly deter further infection.

Shashank Heda, MD
Dallas, Texas

References:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data?country=USA~BRA~IND~RUS~GBR~OWID_WRL

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/publication/32691016

Absolute Isolation Works Absolutely

As of this writing the total deaths in the US have mounted to 10,335. Never before mankind had seen such a fast moving, swiping infection. We knew Ebola, we knew Marburg viruses, and a few Prion diseases but collectively, we had never faced such a dreaded disease with high mortality. We were caught almost unprepared or at least we ignored with complacency. I have shared my thought on why isolation is important to contain this disease and how countries like Singapore, South Korea and japan are dealing planning isolation and intelligence in dealing with this crisis.

Absolute Isolation Works Absolutely

As noted in my earlier blog, viruses are obligate parasites that need (MUST) a host cell to survive. They go through their phases of replication and eventually, after not getting proper host cells to infect, die a natural death.

Strict Isolation Social Distancing

I have had many folks across the geographies asking me a few questions?

  1. Why is the incidence of Coronovirus so high in the US?
  2. Are certain ethnicities (such as Indians) immune to the Coronavirus?

I will emphasize the control of Coronavirus based on the viruses’ obligate dependence on live cells for survival. We all know that if we practice Isolation absolutely, we should be assured of not having the disease.

Two situations preclude our ability for Isolation –

  1. Our needs for Essentials
  2. Fundamental Sense of Liberty

I owe you all a clear and concise write up on the best practices and pragmatic guidelines on “How to Manage Essentials” giving an end to end perspective, that provides the best way to avoid getting the virus inside your home. Give me until later this late evening to fulfill that commitment.

Let us talk about the “Sense of Liberty”. The US, the EU, and most developed nations have an enshrined fundamental Right of liberty to move.  Isolation or ‘Shelter in Place’ equals to ‘House Arrest’ for them. The later nullifies isolation and thus provides a continuation of the propagation of the virus by allowing it to jump from people to people (aerosol, airborne, contact and fomites).

Special intervention in community level

So after the rise of an emerging disease, goverments have a special responsibility to balance between civil liberties and special measures for protecting susceptible populations. However, three components of “scientific“, “voluntary” and civil liberty should be considered as guiding principles for decision-making and operating each special protective measure at the community level (cited).

Aerosols Airborne Fomites

I see a dichotomy based on the above two practical limitations that are increasing the spread of Coronavirus in the US. Select countries like India and Japan are strongly considering the imposition of emergency. Whereas, many have implemented strict isolation even if the idea of isolation has emerged from behind the Iron Curtain of China.

The Bhilwara Model

The Bhilwara Model for containment of COVID-19 refers to imposing a curfew in the district including suspension of essential services, extensive screening, and house-to-house surveys to check for possible cases, and detailed contact tracing of each positive case so as to create a dossier on everybody they met ever since they got infected. A similar model was followed in Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Singapore had gone a step ahead and deployed its intelligence sleuths to extract the contact tracing, whereas, the draconian Chinese Govt deployed Bluetooth tracing abandoning the privacy laws (they do not exist in China, except while the couple is conjugating, I believe!).

The success of the Bhilwara model is attributed to controlling an outbreak within the first four days of the initial incidence (remember the Rho factor.

Absolute isolation works absolutely. Yes, it does but can we forego our sense of liberty? Can we minimize our needs and limit our consumption? Please visit my next blog on “Managing the Essentials”.

 

Also read – Support your service folks (maids, handyman, lawnmowers etc.) https://mymilieu.org/2020/04/02/supporting-service-folks-during-crisis/

Why is Coronavirus highly infective? https://wp.me/p7XEWW-1go

Additional Reading:

How do I know if I have a Coronavirus infection? Before reading further, I strongly advise and recommend that this should not be construed as advice. Your best recourse is your doctor or health care professional.

Doctors in China used a triage system for fast screening. This was published in the Lancet. Below flowchart from the Lancet.

COVID Symptoms Flowchart Lancet JPEG

 

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7117787/

. 2020; 8(1): e41.
Published online 2020 Apr 1.
PMCID: PMC7117787

Epidemiological and Clinical Aspects of COVID-19; a Narrative Review