It is well known that two doses of COVID vaccination – whether it is Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Covishield or Covaxin – offer excellent protection against moderate and severe COVID (95-97%) but not against mild and asymptomatic disease (28%). Booster doses have been a matter of speculation since the early days of COVID vaccination when it was […]
It has long been speculated that the actual mortality due to COVID pandemic is much higher than official numbers, not only in India but in several other countries. New York Governor Andre Cuomo has been caught repeatedly fudging mortality data. The UK government too was accused of under-reporting COVID deaths in the first wave of […]
The good folks at thetruepicture.org have kindly carried my article on the imminent third wave of COVID and strategies to tackle vaccine hesitancy. Third Wave and Vaccine Hesitancy
The ongoing COVID pandemic has devastated several thousands of families. It is estimated that over 10,000 families have lost one parent and over 1,000 children have lost both parents in the second wave alone. Through our non-profit PEHL Services, we aim to support the education of a hundred children from lower socioeconomic strata who have […]
The delta variant of SARS-COV2 is estimated to be 30-100% more transmissible than other prevalent variants and cause more severe infections than the original alpha-variant. At last count, it has spread to 80 countries and has rapidly become the dominant strain in several countries such as India and UK. Some concerns were expressed that the […]
A lot has been said about the need for good ventilation for prevention of COVID. Undoubtedly, good ventilation is vital for preventing build-up of high levels of SARS-COV2 in crowded / public places. Weddings have acted as super-spreader events as hundreds of people were cooped up indoors together for several hours, often in poorly ventilated […]
Let me make it clear at the outset that I greatly appreciate the tireless hard work and extreme risk that ground workers and administrative officials of the Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika (BMC)) have undergone during this pandemic. This article is an attempt at a genuine critique of the so-called “Mumbai Model” insofar as its hits and misses […]
“Modelling analyses showed an increase in vaccine efficacy after two standard doses from 55·1% (95% CI 33·0 to 69·9) with an interval of less than 6 weeks to 81·3% (60·3 to 91·2) with an interval of at least 12 weeks. A single standard dose had an efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 in the first 90 days […]
Oxygen is the single most important medicine for moderate-severe COVID patients. COVID as well as non-COVID hospitals are facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen. The reason is not a lack of production of oxygen, but the inadequacy of the distribution network of tankers to transport liquid oxygen from the point of manufacture to the […]
