Script Writing

On Covid and Frontline Staff

EFFECTS OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC
IN DAILY LIFE
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. ‘CO’
stands for corona, ‘VI’ for virus, and ‘D’ for disease. Formerly, this
disease was referred to as ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019-nCoV.On 31
December 2019, WHO was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown
cause in Wuhan City, China. A novel coronavirus was identified as the
cause by Chinese authorities on 7 January 2020 and was temporarily
named “2019-nCoV”. Most people who are infected with the SARS-CoV-
2 virus have respiratory symptoms. They start to feel a little bit unwell,
they will have a fever, they may have a cough or a sore throat or sneeze.
In some individuals, they may have gastrointestinal symptoms. Others
may lose the sense of smell or the sense of taste. As time passes in a
pandemic there’s a greater chance of survival for those getting infected 6
months later like September 2020 than those who got infected 6 months
earlier say February 2020. The reason for this is that Doctors and
scientists know more about Covid-19 now than 6 months ago and hence
are able to treat patients better. I will list 5 important things that we
know now that we didn’t know in February 2020 for your understanding.
COVID-19 was initially thought to cause deaths due to pneumonia- a
lung infection- and so Ventilators were thought to be the best way to
treat sick patients who couldn’t breathe. Now we are realising that the
virus causes blood clots in the blood vessels of the lungs and other parts
of the body and this causes the reduced oxygenation . Now we know that
just providing oxygen by ventilators will not help but we have to
prevent and dissolve the micro clots in the lungs. This is why we are
using drugs like Asprin and Heparin ( blood thinners that prevents
clotting) as protocol in treatment regimens in June 2020.
Previously patients used to drop dead on the road or even before
reaching a hospital due to reduced oxygen in their blood- OXYGEN
SATURATION. This was because of *HAPPY HYPOXIA*- where even
though the oxygen saturation was gradually reducing the COVID-19
patients did not have symptoms until it became critically less, like
sometimes even 70%. Normally we become breathless if oxygen
saturation reduces below 90%. This breathlessness is not triggered in
Covid patients and so we we’re getting the sick patients very late to the
hospitals in February 2020. Now since knowing about happy hypoxia we
are monitoring oxygen saturation of all covid patients with a simple
home use pulse oxymeter and getting them to hospital if their oxygen
saturation drops to 93% or less*. This gives more time for doctors to
correct the oxygen deficiency in the blood and a better survival chance in
June 2020 We did not have drugs to fight the corona virus in February
2020. We were only treating the complications caused by it… hypoxia.
Hence most patients became severely infected.
Now we have 2 important medicines
FAVIPIRAVIR & REMDESIVI
Which are ANTIVIRALS that can kill the corona virus . By using these
two medicines we can prevent patients from becoming severely infected
and therefore cure them BEFORE THEY GO TO HYPOXIA. This
knowledge we have in September 2020… not in February 2020. Many
Covid-19 patients die not just because of the virus but also due the
patients own immune system responding In an exaggerated manner
called *CYTOKINE STORM*. This stormy strong immune response not
only kills the virus but also kills the patients. In February 2020 we didn’t
know how to prevent it from happening. Now in September 2020, we
know that easily available medicines called Steroids, that doctors around
the world have been using for almost 80 years can be used to prevent the
cytokine storm in some patients.
Now we also know that people with hypoxia became better just by
making them lie down on their belly- known as prone position Apart
from this a few days ago Israeli scientists have discovered that a
chemical known as Alpha Defensin produced by the patients White
blood cells can cause the micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs and
this could possibly be prevented by a drug called Colchicine used over
many decades in the treatment of Gout. So now we know for sure that
patients have a better chance at surviving the COVID-19 infection now
in September 2020 than in February 2020 for sure. India has not peaked
in March or April because of the lockdown. This strategy has postponed
the Covid-19 pandemic in INDIA by 3 crucial months that has enabled
us to save
thousands of lives. Going forward there’s nothing to panic about Covid-
19, if we remember that a person who gets infected, later has a better
chance at survival than one who got infected early feet distancing from
others .Wear proper masks Work from home whenever possible Order
home delivery of food groceries and vegetables Stay at home during
lockdown . Hand wash & hygiene The most important thing is if you lie
down on your stomach, then there is more Oxygen flow to your Lungs.
So your breathing will be lot easier With this we can beat the virus . If
someone tells you every one is going to get infected, tell them that you
are willing to wait to be the last person… who knows by then we might
even have a Vaccine.

The Story of Covaxin

On the border between Tamil nadu and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, lies
the temple town of Thiruthani, one of the six famed abodes of Lord
Muruga. Krishnamurthy Ella was born in 1969, in an agricultural family
to middle class parents. No one could have imagined his trajectory.
Perhaps because of his background, Krishna wanted to study agriculture.
His father wasn’t pleased - he told his son “Nobody becomes a farmer by
just studying agriculture” . Unfazed, Krishna joined University of
Agricultural sciences in Bangalore. His passion and hardwork earned
him a gold medal. Unlike “ordinary” gold medalists, he wasn’t content to
get a job. Nevertheless he supported himself after undergrad by working
briefly in the agricultural division of Bayer Pharma. He longed for more.
He got a rotary scholarship which enabled him to move to the US, to do
his PhD in University of Wisconsin. The scholarship was the wind under
his wings. There was no looking back.
His speciality was molecular biology.
While in the US, he met Suchitra, an economics graduate and married
her.
Average Indians in US would dream of a green card for themselves. Dr
Krishna dreamt for millions of people - freedom from diseases. His
solution - low cost vaccine for neglected diseases.
He wanted his dreams to become reality in India. He started Bharat
Biotech in Hyderabad in the newly formed Genome Valley. The first
product was caesium free Hepatitis B vaccine - the first in the world. His
work caught the attention of Bill& Melinda Gates foundation - whose
funds enabled Bharat Biotech to develop Rotavirus vaccine and
conjugate Typhoid vaccine - again for the first time in the world.
It took 16 long years to make the rotavirus vaccine a reality. The vaccine
costs 85 dollars in the western world, but Krishna had brought its price
down to an astounding 1 dollar ! The vaccines are available in 70
countries and Dr Krishna and team have 140 patents to their name.
Then covid happened.
The race for the vaccine started. The virus was new. No one knew what
would work for sure - and everyone was hedging bets. Meanwhile, Adar
Poonawalla , the billionaire CEO of the world’s largest vaccine
manufacturing company was in talks with Oxford and Astra for
manufacturing a adenovirus vaccine. Half a dozen companies from India
tried, but realistically our collective fate depended on these two men.
They couldn’t have been more different. Poonawalla was a born
billionaire, young and dashing, dressed in immaculate tuxedos, driving
luxury cars and flying private jets to London. Krishna was a scientist
from a family of farmers, a salt of the earth man who had risen through
sheer hardwork and grit.
The global race to develop a vaccine had many approaches
simultaneously. It’s a little like betting on many horses at the same time.
Krishna realised that the vaccines should not just be safe and effective,
but also practical. That meant no difficult storage conditions.
So mRNA vaccines were out. The adenovirus vaccines trick the body into
believing that it has infection by sending just the spike protein the virus
uses to enter the cell. The immune system once primed, remembers this
and when the real virus attacks, is able to protect us. There was one
glitch - the protection wasn’t full, at least in the early stages when they
tested in chimpanzees . Krishna toyed with the idea of modified rabies
virus as a vector, but it didn’t work out. His projects with University of
Wisconsin , his alma mater and Thomas Jefferson Institute too didn’t
yield much results.
When the rest of the world went for cutting edge mRNA tech, Dr
Krishna decided to go the retro route. Sometimes, old is gold. And he
struck gold with the killed virus vaccine , developed in association with
ICMR.
It had to be tested though - initially in mice and guineapigs and then in
humans. There were numerous struggles in phase 1 and 2 trials. This was
a race against time. Corona was killing people. The previous vaccine had
taken long years of research. Will covaxin work? Will it be safe? Were
the foremost questions in everyone’s mind.
With the help of India’s virologists , they shortened the testing phase.
They gave the vaccine to volunteers and in 28 days - their blood sample
was taken. It was tested in a high biosafety lab with the deadly virus. If
the vaccine had worked, the antibodies in the blood sample, would
neutralise the virus and there won’t be any growth.
To their ecstasy, the vaccine worked brilliantly. At long last, he had
developed a vaccine that was made in India, but for the world.
Covaxin was born.
Amazingly, Krishna Ella had achieved this without a single rupee from
the government !There were further struggles ahead - in human testing.
The pandemic had created a virtual Babel of tongues, magnified a
million times by social media - with every Tom, Dick and Harry raising
doubts about the vaccine in every stage. Indian regulatory authorities
were sane for once - they expedited the process.
India became the only third world country to develop a vaccine. With the
Vaccine Maitri initiative, it gave vaccines to many countries. It was an
incredible achievement.
In the 60s, President Kennedy announced that America will put a man on
the moon within a decade - eventhough no one knew how. It came to be
known as the “moonshot”. Covaxin is India’s moonshot moment or
perhaps a “coroshot” moment, achieved not in a decade, but within one
year. It’s our own success in the war against an invisible foe. The fruits
of this victory, will be shared - with the poorest of countries.
They say, seeing is believing. Great men reverse this adage. They believe
with such intensity that they bring to life and see what they believe.
Believing is seeing.

SITUATION OF DOCTORS DURING THE

PANDEMIC
Doctors form an essential part of an effective response to the COVID-19
pandemic. We argue they have a duty to participate in pandemic response due to
their special skills, but these skills vary between different doctors, and their duties
are constrained by other competing rights. We conclude that while doctors should
be encouraged to meet the demand for medical aid in the pandemic, those who
make the sacrifices and increased efforts are owed reciprocal obligations in return.
When reciprocal obligations are not met, doctors are further justified in opting out
of specific tasks, as long as this is proportionate to the unmet obligation. They have
critical roles in diagnosis, containment and treatment, and their commitment to
treat despite increased personal risks is essential for a successful public health
response. Frontline workers have been experiencing high work volume, personal
risk and societal pressure to meet extraordinary demands for healthcare. Despite
this traditional public health ethics has paid little attention to the protection of the
rights of doctors. While we have so far looked at the duty of care of doctors, this is
not a homogenous group. All doctors have a duty (within limitations) to care for
their patients, but an acutely unwell and infectious patient might not be within the
normal range of practice of some specialties. If we compare an infectious disease
physician with an ophthalmic surgeon, two arguments could be made for the
greater duty of the infectious disease physician: this could arise from both their
greater skill in managing patients with COVID-19 and by their choice of specialty.
It could be argued that by choosing to train in the management of infectious
diseases they have implicitly agreed to accept a predetermined level of risk, and
therefore, frontline pandemic work may fall within the scope of agreed duties. In
short, the obligation to participate in frontline work is higher for those who chose
to ‘opt in’ to higher risk work at specialty training, than for those who chose to ‘opt
out’. This neither implies the infectious disease doctor has an absolute duty to
participate in frontline work regardless of personal risk or that the ophthalmic
surgeon has no duty, rather that the degree of obligation may vary between
specialties within certain constraints. Licensed doctors may not be the only
doctors asked to help care for patients during the pandemic. In the UK, the
government called for recent retirees and senior medical students to
volunteer in the response to COVID-19. This leads to the question of when
professional or vocational obligations start and end. As medical students’ training
is subsidised by the UK government, this could be grounds for the start of a duty to
society, with this only being able to be realised later in medical school when
students may have skills that could aid in the response. Although the age of most
medical students means they are likely to be low risk for complications of COVID-
19, it is not clear that the skills medical students have are sufficiently useful to
counter the perhaps greater risks of psychological and emotional distress in those
who have not developed resilience by working in the health system. The duty to
return for retirees, or those that have chosen to leave medicine, should not be
grounded in their choice to be a doctor. It would be an unduly extensive duty if
understood as a lifelong commitment lasting beyond a professional career.
However, as recent retirees in acute care specialties could be extremely skilled
staff, this duty could be ground in a ‘duty of easy rescue’. This means that ‘if it is
in your power to save a life or prevent something bad from happening where the
cost to you is negligible, very less, or has comparable moral importance, you are
morally obliged to do it’. However, in the case of COVID-19 retirees are by their
age at risk of death and serious illness, challenging the idea that the cost is eligible
or this an ‘easy rescue’. Furthermore, intensive care unit beds and ventilators (as
well as doctors) are a finite resource. Putting retirees on the front line may generate
a net harm, rather than a net benefit. From both an ethical and pragmatic
perspective, doctors must be viewed in the context of rich lives with
multiple competing demands. We should encourage doctors to meet the
demand for medical aid in the pandemic, but those who make the sacrifices
and increased efforts are owed reciprocal obligations in return. When
reciprocal obligations are not met, doctors are further justified in opting out
of specific tasks, as long as this is proportionate to the unmet obligation. To
encourage doctors to meet the demand for healthcare provision and to
prevent structural injustices undermining reciprocal obligations owed to
doctors, it is important to explicitly define the reciprocal obligations owed to
doctors. Further work is required to define these professional standards
that should take into account the capacity for structural factors that may
influence doctor’s agency and should aim to meet these reciprocal
obligations.

Police during the time of

COVID – 19 pandemic
The last major pandemic that devastated the subcontinent was the Spanish flu in 1918 that
took away the life of 15 million Indians. It was reported to have come in India through the
Bombay port, the first ones to be admitted to the hospital with “the Bombay fever” were the
seven police sepoys who were posted at the Bombay dock. Now again when India stops in
track to break the Covid-19 pandemic chain, the police have come again in the frontline for
the enforcement of the lockdown.
The experience of police of crowd control, public order management, investigation of
criminal acts, and deterrence of the law-breaking behaviour was utilized at the time of
pandemic for enforcement of lockdown. The task of enforcing a rule compliant behaviour
and tracing of people who are infected with the virus are the tasks which are required skills
in which only the police have experience. With the extension of lockdown, the role of police
in the pandemic also extended, like helping the poor and the helpless who need urgent help
to reach the hospital, supply of the essential commodity, etc. Even in some cases, when no
one was available to claim the dead body, police helped in the ferrying of dead bodies and
facilitating the last rites. Also, during the lockdown police were seen with the megaphones,
informing the crowd about the Corona virus i.e. a job that security guards could have done,
today there is a variety of tasks performed by the police that can be done by private guards
under supervision.
Enforcement of the lockdown and
maintenance of public order
As the imposition of lockdown brings big lifestyle change among the people, the police struggle to find
out ways of implementing such changes. In order to restrict the spread of the virus across the country,
police have taken steps to enforce lockdown properly from the first day of the lockdown on 24th March,
2020. The imposition of lockdown becomes difficult because of the closely connected community life,
along with street cultures of everyday life, the climatic adjustments to a hot and humid climate where
access to open spaces becomes a necessity and the panic of closing of essential services shop leads to the
crowd on streets despite the stay at home orders. All this brought pressure on the police force to
implement the restrictions as some started obeying the rules while others still remained or still remain
defiant. In order to impose the restrictions, the police force was deployed across the nation in patrolling
vans and foot patrols from the first day of the lockdown. The majority of police forces achieved success
in the imposition of lockdown through strict access control and movement restriction without the use of
coercive force.
In India police personnel right from the starting of a police career get socialized into a policing job role
where public order management and crowd control functions are taken as the most essential skill in
policing and this skill of police has come to use in the present case of a pandemic related lockdown.
Assistance to the vulnerable during
crisis
Due to the lockdown, the increased presence of police on the roads led
police to face misery, vulnerability, and poverty much more than any other
professional group apart from the health functionaries. This was also
experienced by the poor urban migrant workers who started returning to
their village on foot and the distress of those workers who survive on a
daily wage basis and have left with no source for food or other survival
needs.
The restriction of any other actors on the field leads the police to take this
responsibility and to address this vulnerability. To affect the movement
restriction of the lockdown, most of the police forces started feeding
programs for the poor either by becoming a bridge between the kitchens
run by the government or at many places by organizing a drive-by police
staff themselves for feeding the poor on the sidelines of their job. As more
and more charities and public donations approached the police to
distribute or engage in feeding programs, the police started partnering
with other government and non-governmental agencies in relief work. As
the public started seeing the police interface with relief work, their service
orientation, and their connectivity with those who needed help, the trust of
the public that police would deliver and reach out became stronger.
Utilization of police skills for public
health outcomes
The police force has experience in investigation and this skill of police is required
for tracing the people affected with the virus, this contact tracing has been and still
is very important in this time of the rapid spread of the infective virus as the health
sector struggles to manage its resources and reach. The police have done contact
tracing by drawing the backward and forward linkages of the affected people, by
decoding the pattern of catching the virus, and by identifying those coming in
contact with the affected persons. In the investigation of contact tracing of the
COVID-19 affected persons, the basic investigation skills of police have proved as
a valuable resource.
In order to trace the contacts from the affected persons, the CDR analysis related to
the call detail records of the mobile phones of the affected person, along with other
cyber forensic tools have been used by the police force. To decipher contact
histories and draw models of spread, it’s the cyber police wings and the district
police setups that are working with the health professionals. To do contact tracing,
police all over India are using their investigation skill, cyber forensic tools, and
digital investigation skills. The role of police doesn’t stop at contact tracing; it
extends to physically tracing these individuals and helping the health staff to reach
out and convince the identified persons to be tested, hospitalized, or quarantined as
per the health advisor.
Overall drop in crime due to pandemic
In the time of lockdown what helped police was the fact that the roads
were empty and there was zero traffic on major highways, which ensured a
reduction in traffic accidents and fatalities caused by such accidents.
Trespass and burglary also became a more difficult crime to commit in this
time as anti-social elements are confined to their homes.
During the lockdown period, a drop in crime level has been found in major
cities that generally report a high number of crimes. Between April 1 and
15 , Delhi police reported a 70% fall in heinous crime i.e. murders and rape
as compared to the same period last year. From March 25 – April 15 the
number of crimes dropped by 79% in Chennai over the February 25 –
March 15 period. The police force can be proud that it managed to keep the
peace during difficult times such as the pandemic.
Conclusion
For our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the frontline staffs either in
the police or health sector are great resources. The urgent need of this time
is the realization of their value and worth and making rapid provisions for
their safety and motivation. In order to maximize the efficiency of the
police in pandemic management and at the same time keeping the police
force safe and motivated, risk factors are needed to be framed into policies.

Members :-

Shreyam S. Saikia

Ahnikjyoti Borboruah

Jishu Kashyap Boruah

Hebojyoti Boro

Nripraj Gogoi (Didn’t Prepare Anything)

Ayushman Dutta (Didn’t Prepare Anything)