Vishnu has never watched Gangs of New York, the 2002 Martin Scorsese movie. Therefore, it is impossible that he had heard Daniel Day Lewis say with a sense of avuncular pride and deep intensity, “I am 47 years old”. But that is exactly what he says in Hindi when asked his age. “I am very senior,” he … Continue reading With Covid-19 reaching Azadpur Mandi, a fruit seller shares his challenges, fears
public health
Indian Society is Too Interdependent for a Long Lockdown: Nobel Economist and Poverty Expert Angus Deaton
Angus S. Deaton is a Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. The 74-year-old, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare in … Continue reading Indian Society is Too Interdependent for a Long Lockdown: Nobel Economist and Poverty Expert Angus Deaton
Domestic Abuse Sees a Sharp Rise in the Time of the Covid-19 Lockdown
Kolkata-based women’s rights activist Anuradha Kapoor speaks with a mix of compassion and passion. She founded the women’s rights organisation Swayam 25 years ago and it now covers the entire state of West Bengal. “Domestic abuse has gone up at least 20-30 per cent since the lockdown,” she says bluntly, doing some mental calculation of … Continue reading Domestic Abuse Sees a Sharp Rise in the Time of the Covid-19 Lockdown
Kerala Looks to Buy Cuban ‘Wonder Drug’ Interferon
In a first, Kerala will shortly launch a testing drive to detect community transmission of COVID-19 besides setting up a surveillance mechanism to keep a tab on respiratory disorders using mobile apps, a senior state government official said, adding that the southern state will also approach the Centre to help it acquire Interferon Alpha inhalational … Continue reading Kerala Looks to Buy Cuban ‘Wonder Drug’ Interferon
Blood Plasma Treatment for Covid-19 Ready: Kerala Doctors
Almost a week before the US Food and Drug Administration announced a plan to facilitate the use of plasma of recovered Covid-19 patients to treat new cases, doctors and scientists in Kerala have prepared and submitted a protocol for such a therapy with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). Doctors treating Covid-19 patients in Kerala … Continue reading Blood Plasma Treatment for Covid-19 Ready: Kerala Doctors
Coronavirus Impact: Our Behaviour Is Changing Faster than We Thought
DAVID RUNCIMAN WRITES in his book How Democracy Ends that ‘a common complaint against twenty-first century democracy is that it has lost control of corporate power’. But we are in a phase, brief or otherwise, when corporate power is helpless and so is democracy, to an extent, and yet what is public good snatches the … Continue reading Coronavirus Impact: Our Behaviour Is Changing Faster than We Thought
‘The Number of Tests Conducted So Far is Too Low’ – Former Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao
K Sujatha Rao, former Union Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is an authority on Indian public health system. Her vastly detailed book on the subject, Do We Care? India’s Health System, covers communicable and lifestyle diseases and health and drug research in the country. Rao was also the chief of the National AIDS … Continue reading ‘The Number of Tests Conducted So Far is Too Low’ – Former Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao
“We Should Evaluate Camostat Mesylate Drug for Treatment of Covid-19”
Noted scientist Markus Hoffmann works at the infection biology unit of German Primate Center in Göttingen-based Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, one of the world’s most reputed institutions in medical research. He is the lead author of a recent paper titled ‘SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and is Blocked by a Clinically … Continue reading “We Should Evaluate Camostat Mesylate Drug for Treatment of Covid-19”
Viral Fear: India Joins the World in Fighting Coronvirus (and Hysteria)
IN THE 2011 MOVIE CONTAGION, AN EPIDEMIOLOGIST named Dr Erin Mears, who dies helping fight a pandemic, says with a sense of utmost urgency, ‘The average person touches their face three to five times every waking minute. In between that we’re touching door knobs, water fountains, and each other.’ She is talking about a viral … Continue reading Viral Fear: India Joins the World in Fighting Coronvirus (and Hysteria)
Why Restrictions on E-Cigarettes Won’t Help
IN THE MOVIE Tourist, Johnny Depp, who plays Frank Tupelo, an American in Venice who lands in mysterious circumstances after meeting a fascinating woman (Angelina Jolie), puffs on a vaporised cigarette, also called electronic or non-combustible cigarette, that is said to be 95 per cent less harmful than its burning counterpart. The 2010 thriller perhaps had … Continue reading Why Restrictions on E-Cigarettes Won’t Help
Ullekh NP 