1 Nov 2021
Samir Saran
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Comparisons, as the proverb goes, are odious. Hence comparing the raging outbreak of Covid19 with any other pandemic of recent times is best avoided. Yet, it is difficult to track the pandemonium unleashed by Covid19 without recalling how the SARS epidemic of 2002-03 had let loose fear, concern and death in a similar manner. Then,…
24 Sep 2021
Oommen C. Kurian
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There are four types of endemic human corona viruses in the world—229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1—and people across countries commonly get infected with these. According to experts, SARS-CoV-2 virus is soon becoming the fifth endemic human coronavirus. Once the supply bottlenecks of COVID-19 vaccines are overcome, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is supposed to become yet another…
4 May 2021
Vikas Kathuria & Arul Scaria
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It is clear by now that universal access to vaccines depends upon cheap prices, and high scale and speed of production. Even if governments subsidise prices to make the vaccines cheap or ideally free of cost, at present, there are not enough vaccines to administer the critical mass of the population in poor- and middle-income…
23 Jan 2021
Oommen C. Kurian
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The biggest vaccination campaign ever has also brought the focus on health inequalities at a global scale. As of 21st January, of the more than 55 million Covid-19 vaccine shots administered across the world, only 55 doses have gone to people of a low-income country. That country is Guinea, and they have secured these 55…
6 Jan 2021
Oommen C. Kurian
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Despair was the leitmotif of 2020. Even countries with acclaimed health systems have been through a nightmare that is yet to end. In this gloomy, dismal scenario, as the world enters 2021, the multiple COVID-19 vaccines that have secured regulatory approvals across the world and are being rolled out to much fanfare, offer a glimmer…
Tobacco smoking is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. It kills many of its users, 80 percent of whom live in low-and middle-income countries. One of the six primary tactics adopted by the WHO to counter the tobacco epidemic is promoting cessation – asking people to quit tobacco use. But achieving high levels…
2 Sep 2020
Priti Patnaik
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Vaccines for COVID-19 are not yet a reality, but plans are afoot to enable trading in stocks of potential vaccines. Gavi says the plan will allow countries to exchange vaccines doses with each other, allowing each economy to optimise to their own needs. In order to get a firm commitment from rich countries to commit…
22 Aug 2020
Banjot Kaur
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The eight million residents of Mumbai’s Dharavi are not concerned about whether the ‘Dharavi model’ to tackle the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was science or serendipity. They would rather leave that to the experts and media. The people of Dharavi are, instead, more concerned about issues such as job loss, unemployment, hunger and shortage of…
19 Aug 2020
Chitra Subramaniam
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As the health, economic and political impact of COVID-19 unfolds the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been under international glare and scrutiny in ways rarely seen throughout its over 70-year history. The basis of the malaise is focused on its (in)ability to sound the alarm at the right time and demonstrate global leadership in helping…
17 Aug 2020
Banjot Kaur
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While 90-feet-road presented a picture of a normal Dharavi, Down To Earth decided to move a bit further north from here. Our fixer, Rajesh Prabhakar, and Dharavi-based volunteer, Arun Kunchikor, insisted we visit areas that rarely attract the attention of either the media or the administration. We reached Rajiv Gandhi Nagar’s Uttar Seva Sangh Chawl.…