Measures to deal with crisis created by Covid-19 pandemic

Our country is passing through a very grave crisis due the current Covid-19 epidemic. There is a shortage in hospital beds, Oxygen supply, ventilators, vaccine supply and, above all, trained medical and paramedical personnel. Our doctors, nurses and supporting staff are overworked and tired. In this critical hour what we most need is constructive criticism and suggestions for out-of-the -box solutions.

First of all, what we need is a medical think tank in the Ministry of Health and family Welfare. When there were the first rumblings of a second Covid wave in Maharashtra and Punjab, three months ago, the ministry should have anticipated the possibility of a multi-dimensional crisis enveloping the whole country.

Britain was then going through its 3rd national lockdown due to the 3rd Covid surge caused by a new strain. There was no reason to think that the Corona virus would not mutate in India and precipitate a kindred Covid wave. That is why it is necessary to have a medical Think-Tank in the ministry of health. Its job should be to anticipate both short term and long-term trends and stay one-step ahead of the evolving and mutating Corona virus. It can be safely said that this problem is going to haunt India and the world for the next three years, if not more.

Out of all the shortages listed above, the most difficult to tackle is the problem of Oxygen (O2) supply, and O2 has turned out to be the most essential commodity for life support in a Covid epidemic. One can step up O2 production almost overnight. Normally an O2 producing factory operates a single 8-hour shift in a day. The production can be trebled by running the plant for 24 hours in 3 shifts. And this is being done all over the country. But it is not so easy to manufacture the massive O2 cylinders and supply them to different corners of the country. It is here some out-of-the-box exploration is necessary.

O2 packs for breathing-support are used by astronauts in outer space; hence, the Space industry experts should now be consulted. The mountaineers carry their O2 supply on their back and their packs are much lighter; hence, much easier to transport and distribute. Slightly different O2 containers are carried by the ocean divers. Hence, both mountaineers and under-water life support experts should be roped in. We need practical men and women, and not those so-called theorizing experts of which India has an abundant supply. Our army, which deals with the life-support system on Siachen glacier, is another solid source of knowledge in such matters.

The ministry should assemble experts from these fields, listed above, and come up with a well thought out strategy to deal with the O2 supply crisis.

Also, now is the time to plan a rolling vaccination scheme. The present vaccines would give us protection for a few months; however, soon a time would come when the Corona would have mutated beyond the reach of the present vaccines. Every year the world produces a new vaccine for Influenza, because the concerned virus evolves to evade the current vaccine. There is no reason to think that the Corona would not do the same. India is the leading vaccine producing country of the world. Hence, it is for us to stay one-step ahead of the Corona virus in vaccine research.