It’s highly alarming that India has not yet reached any peak or plateau in terms of coronavirus cases which means the situation will probably take a turn for worse in the future. Rakesh Mishra, Director of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Cautioned that India still have to do something to bring about the plateau or peak and it will certainly come at a cost with the number of coronavirus cases already climbing over 2 million or 20 lakh and 40,000 fatalities.
Massive scale of testing, tracing, isolating and ‘social vaccine’ of personal hygiene, that consists of regular hand washing, maintaining social and physical distance with each other and wearing a proper face mask appropriately are the only means available to control the further spread of COVID-19, said Rakesh Mishra.
He further added in a webinar on the role of academic institutions during pandemic times, “If everyone followed these rules religiously, we can defeat this virus, more so since there is no vaccine coming on August 15 or till the year-end, if at all. A lot more remains to be learnt about the virus”.
As for the recent uproar regarding the vaccine developed by Russia, Dr. Mishra has already quoted stating that the Russian vaccine efficacy could be validated only if more data is available about the protocols followed considering the less number of people tested in the final trials stage there. Noting that the large number of cases in the country were in the age group of between 20-30-40, Dr. Mishra said that it has ‘serious implications’ as these could spread to the vulnerable sections of elderly and those with co-morbidities. He further added, “We are lucky that this virus has spared lives in the sense that more than 80% are asymptomatic. We should also educate people not to stigmatise those returning to normal lives after getting cured as they are the ‘speed-breakers’ halting the march of the virus”.
A notable aspect of the COVID-19 virus infection after having studied 1,886 genomes from 19 States and 35 research institutions is that a single strain or clade ‘A2a’ has turned out to be the dominant one in the country. Since the COVID-19 virus has not been mutating much in our country it would not be disadvantageous for scientists to find a way to treat the virus whether it is with drugs or the vaccine. CCMB has also initiated a study to understand as to why more men rather than females are prone to the infection and the genetic disposition towards being an asymptomatic virus carrier when there is a single dominant clade.
But doing so won’t be an easy cup of tea as it would require more study and pouring through lots of data, he said. However, this will surely be a challenging moment for scientific bodies, academic institutions and the industry to collaborate on finding solutions and “reaffirm the public trust in science”.
Dr Mishra said that, “This is a lifetime opportunity to make a difference as a scientist whether to understand biology, drugs, vaccines, hospital treatment, in this worst public health crises,” and further added that the premier research institute alone has been collaborating with 15 different firms and incubating 25 start-ups.
