Guide on how to arrest mass panic with recommendations
Government of India’s unofficial mouthpiece ANI on 28th April 2021 published a letter by doctors worried about mass panic. Here’s a guide on how the overlords in echelons of power can help arrest panic:
Tell the truth
I am not a medical professional but I read extensively. From my reading I know these troubling facts:
- Plasma therapy is not a magic cure that people expect it to be
- Remdisivir’s effectiveness is sketchy at best
- The same applies to ivermectin
These facts and more were confirmed by Dr. Anuj Agarwal in his column — Misinformed and misleading. Thank you The Hindu team for making it available here, I do wish that the link was not behind a paywall though.
Recommendation: Put out simple to understand guidelines to doctors and patients.
Manage Expectations
Like Manohar Lal Khattar rightly said, “Useless to debate Covid toll as dead won’t come back to life.” As a politician I an understand his perspective. India has consistently lost around 200,000 people per year to the road ‘systems.’ Hence, the loss of 200,000+ Indians in a pandemic with a “recovery rate” of 90%+ are great optics. However, Mr Khattar the stories that the dead will tell us will help us solve this crisis. Share the real data without which arresting the spread of this virus would be
What Mr Khattar does not realise is that the dead do talk especially when they are ‘stats’ that are evidently being faked. Stop. Tell people the truth about triaging.
Two recommendations:
- Give clear SCIENTIFICALLY approved guides to doctors with a public service campaign to inform general populace.
- Share the real numbers with institutions that are intent on helping.
