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Learning life lessons from genetic strands called COVID-19

Dear Fellow citizens and fellow academicians,

I share with you my thoughts on the Covid 19 Pandemic. I hope these thoughts will excite your own thought processes. We may yet find new directions in containing this life-threatening scourge, and we may be able to ably assist our leadership in their efforts to fight the Covid war.

We live in tough times. We live in scary times. Coronavirus has compromised human lives, human health, competent health systems and global economies. While leadership of all nations are strategizing steps to contain this scourge, ordinary citizens from all walks of life have an equally important, dare I say, the more important role in preventing more deaths, disease, destruction, and despair.

This is not the time for loud unproductive TV debates by seemingly overly committed TV anchors, and this is not the time for trying to fix blame on the administration, or citizens or religious communities .... this is the time for strategic thinking with cool minds, and converting rational thought into firm decisions, and then into decisive actions.

This is not the time for reasoning, appeasement and cajoling.... this is the time for enforcing the laws... on all strata of society, on all religions, and on all professions. This is the time to show miscreants, and law breakers, the arrogantly oppositional, and the plain stupid, of all hues, ages and communities, their role in spreading Coronavirus infections, and undermining the efforts of a nation reeling under a deadly attack from a single microorganism. These groups of people should be dealt with firmly, strictly and legally. While they may or may not be aware of the consequences of their actions, or in their misplaced bravado, may consider themselves immune from Coronavirus, they have no right to compromise the health of fellow citizens and put them at mortal risks.

Maharashtra id a leading state in Covid infections and deaths. Here we may not be adequately accounting for the role of Mumbai local trains in enhancing the cases of Covid infection, especially when we see cases that have no overseas travel history or any contact with a known traveller. Mumbai population was traveling for several days in packed coaches of Mumbai locals, and without face masks, for several days after the first cases were reported in Mumbai. While the huge dilemma in putting a halt to the lifeline of Mumbai is understandable, these overcrowded means of public transport probably played a bigger role in spreading the virus than gyms, pools and offices. But as I wrote earlier, this is a time to find solutions and to take quick remedial actions, rather than to fix blames. However, it helps to know the sources of spread of infection when we mull over solutions. Its great that a decision was taken to halt the Mumbai Locals, though it could have happened sooner. We would probably see lesser numbers of Covid positive cases in this teeming metropolis.

If China can overcome its Covid 19 crisis, then other nations too certainly can overcome their crises with passage of time. We should keep our efforts on unrelentingly and keep our hopes alive for a containment of this Pandemic.  Our nation’s Government has been proactive and decisive in its war against Coronavirus. We have had lesser number of fatalities than several other nations. This is the time to support our administration and not pick holes in its performance. This is the time for all communities to come together and support each other, and not deride each other. This is the time for doctors and health workers to come forward and help infected citizens and not shut themselves in their homes to protect themselves. Imagine the scenario of our army men going into hiding when an enemy country declares war on us. Would our soldier’s actions be acceptable to us? In the present grim scenario, healthcare workers are the soldiers of the nation. Let us not shirk our responsibilities. This is the time for pharmaceuticals to support Doctors with supply of essential as well as anti-Coronavirus medicines and certainly not the time for pushing their nonessential products by online marketing to doctors while sitting safely ensconced in their homes.

This is not the time for the opposing politicians to make unsavoury comments against the incumbent dispensation simply to score brownie points, but it’s the time for them to offer their advice and support to the administration. This is the time for families to work together as a unit and share household and financial responsibilities. This is not the time to showcase our bad personality traits to each other. This is the time for parents to spend time with their children and to explain the pandemic situation to their immature and innocent minds. This is the time to give up addictions. This is also the time to manage our chronic illnesses with more care and responsibility.

This is the time for looking inwardly and discover oneself. This is the time to read and enrich our minds. This is the time to move away from superficial pursuits to deeper meanings of life. This is the time to move from religion to spirituality. This is the time to show understanding, kindness and love. This is the time to distribute and share and not the time to hoard and earn profit. This is the time to help the impoverished and the less fortunate and not the time to celebrate expensive birthdays with blind followers. This is the time to pray silently in our hearts and not the time to gather for loud religious sermons. This is the time to stop being followers of different religions and to be simply human ..... and embrace humanity. This is the time to stop being foolish, and it’s the time to gain and impart wisdom. This is the time to shed our egos, prides, a sense of superiority and of invincibility and to remember that each of us is but a life of minuscule importance in this endlessly vast universe. Coronavirus does not recognise age, colour, class and creed. It can fell kings and subjects alike in its relentless march across continents.

This is the time to be supportive and considerate. This is the time to be kind and loving. This is the time to come together emotionally.  Together we can win this war.  Together we shall wipe out this scourge.

-Dr Sailesh Gupta, MD, Mumbai