World Physical Therapy Day is on 8th September every year. The day is an opportunity for physiotherapists from all over the world to raise awareness about the crucial contribution the profession makes to keeping people well, mobile and independent. Physiotherapy has always played a very important role in restoring physical health by relieving pain and improving muscle and joint function of the body. The day marks the unity and solidarity of the global physiotherapy community. It is an opportunity to recognize the work that physiotherapists do for their patients and the community. Physiotherapists help people maximize their quality of life, looking at physical, psychological, emotional, and social wellbeing. At KRV Healthcare & Physiotherapy pvt ltd we work in the health spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment/intervention, and rehabilitation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of Physiotherapy has been highlighted concerning the treatment and rehabilitation of the patients. Chest Physiotherapy and immunity-boosting exercise helped the patients to restore their lungs' capacity and overall well-being. It also facilitates respiratory comfort to critically-ill COVID- 19 patients.
The scope of Physiotherapy is not limited to the treatment of any musculoskeletal or neurological condition nowadays but has also widened to the prevention of the diseases and overall fitness.

At KRV Healthcare and Physiotherapy pvt Ltd., KRV team and The founder Dr Ridwana Sanam have not only treated various conditions but also prevented thousands of surgeries of knee and back pain. The pandemic has changed our way of life and the healthcare industry has switched using telehealth, to help people access support from a physiotherapist to help them manage the impact of COVID-19 Telehealth can be as effective as conventional healthcare methods to improve physical function. With the benefits to telehealth being proven effective around the globe for rehabilitation, it can be accessed anywhere and anytime that suits you. It also eliminates the cross-infection risk of COVID-19 as no travel is required, especially if you are ill or have mobility restrictions. Exercises and techniques can be watched and learned online from a physiotherapy provider, therefore, reducing hospital stays and bills. Physiotherapists are using telehealth during COVID-19 to support patients and treat a wide range of conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure, type 2 diabetes, rheumatic disease, mental health conditions, musculoskeletal conditions, post-surgery (e.g. hip, knee replacement), and many more.

We have been continually working in the health and education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic to spread awareness regarding musculoskeletal health. We are putting our constant efforts online and offline to serve society. We have customized our products for patients with muscle and joint pain. With our constant efforts, we have also innovated ergonomically designed products like Lumbar belt, cervical collar, Knee brace, and Pain Oil spray for people who are unable to come to the clinic for treatment. With our customized ergonomic products, it has become very easy for our patients to manage their muscle and joint pain at home and to prevent it from further wear and tear.
Dr Ridwana Sanam strongly believes  in prevention management and during this pandemic, my team and I have been working constantly in the best way possible.
As a philanthropist, it’s my responsibility to contribute the society by restoring the health of the people and to play our part in the health and wellness industry. We have a team of experts that include mental health therapists, spiritual counselors, professional physiotherapists, physio technicians who have put all their efforts during this pandemic to serve the community.

We are happy to serve you both online and offline expert advice. For free telle or online (video) consultation  contact us on 9999998934 (WhatsApp) or you can also visit our website www.krv.co.in for further information.
Dr Ridwana Sanam
Entrepreneur/ senior consultant physio/ author /philanthropist

Bilateral relations are now deepening, impacting human lives at the basic level. After agriculture, it is shared COVID-19 management protocols

A special flight equipped with medical equipment and advanced technological treatments for Coronavirus flew to India from Tel Aviv last week. Also on board were defence and security experts as well as Israeli diplomats returning to their embassies and consulates in the region. The Israeli team will join hands with researchers in India to develop a rapid testing solution for COVID-19. Dozens of sophisticated ventilators, which were loaded onto the special flight before take-off, made the name of the mission that much more meaningful: Breathing Space.

Israel went out of its way to approve the export and transfer of these ventilators to India, while both countries continue to fight against the spread of the virus. Israel’s exceptional gesture was a welcome “thank you” to India, which just a few months ago sent medicine and other essential diagnostic equipment, in severe global shortage at the time, to Israel. In this way, Israel and India successfully transformed this unprecedented global pandemic into an opportunity to assist one another and enhance their relations.

The Israel-India relationship has improved dramatically over the past several years. It’s hard to believe that just three decades ago, Indian passports were valid “for every country except Israel.” Today, India has become one of our most significant friendships in the Asian region. The scope of mutual trade between the two countries has grown from approximately $200 million in 1992 to some $4 billion in 2018.

Since former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s first historic visit to India in 2003, Israeli and Indian Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers have enjoyed a host of bilateral visits and discussions. One of the first discussions Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi held upon entering his new role was with his Indian counterpart, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.

Israel’s Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Benny Gantz, too, had a word with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, expressing hope that the strong bilateral ties between the two countries would contribute significantly to the global efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. These are just some of the indicators of the surge that has occurred in relations between the two countries since diplomatic ties were fully established in 1992.

This upward trend has yielded success in other fields as well. Although it’s difficult to imagine direct flights while living under the cloud of COVID-19, Air India’s direct flight between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, inaugurated two years ago, minimises flight duration by flying over Saudi Arabia. This contributes towards the normalisation of Israel’s ties with the Arab world and as such, assists Israel in achieving its strategic goal of improving its relations with the region.

Other flights — El Al to Mumbai, Arkia flights to Goa and Cochin — are an important bridge between Israel and India.  This bridge is further strengthened by a visa relief policy for Indian citizens, which saw the number of Indian tourists visiting Israel grow from 16,000 in 2000 to over 70,000 in 2018.

One of India’s most critical national security challenges is the provision of food security to its immense population. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has consistently invested a tenth of the Agency for International Development’s (MASHAV) budget into India for several years now. This has financed the establishment of more than 28 “Excellency Centres” across the many States that make up India. These centres serve as agricultural “demonstration” farms, introducing Israeli experts and innovative Israeli technologies to Indian farmers.

During his last visit to India in January 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his home State of Gujarat. In an exceptionally moving moment, hundreds of farmers rushed to meet them and share their personal stories. One after another, they recounted how their fields’ crop yields had improved by a hundred per cent following their training at Israel’s Excellence Centres.

Relations between Israel and India clearly don’t just exist between Governments but also between societies. The Israel-India relationship has permeated all elements of Indian society, including that of the 650 million Indian citizens who make a living from agriculture and who represent half of the workforce in India.

Israel’s contributions have also risen to prominence in fields ranging from health, security, industry and more. Most critical on our shared agenda, however, is water and Israel is uniquely placed to provide solutions to the critical water shortage issue that India faces. Both countries share a deep and mutual appreciation for the benefits that their joint collaboration brings them at the community level.

Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, India is assuming its role as a regional and world power and our diplomacy has succeeded in showing India the many advantages that can come from strengthening its ties with Israel. The Foreign Ministry is determined to cultivating its ties with India to ensure that our relations continue to thrive in the future.

(The writer is Deputy Director General for Asia and the Pacific at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Until a viable vaccine is found, finding new ways to cope with the unexpected seems to be our only recourse to brace against the unexpected challenges thrown by the virus

Life is not the way it’s supposed to be…. The way you cope is what makes the difference — Virginia Satir.

When the famous US family therapist Virginia Satir talked about coping with life’s adversities, she was unlikely to have had images of a pandemic like COVID-19 in mind. But her words have a grim relevance today as we learn to live with the unforeseen and unprecedented situation caused by the Coronavirus. A recent telephone survey conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), through its Data Innovation Centre, documents several insightful findings about public behaviour and the health and economic outcomes of both the virus and the lockdown imposed by the Government to curb its transmission.

The findings explain the surge as most respondents, while adhering to safety protocols, admit that they took advantage of the “unlock” phase to step out of the house when there was no pressing need. At the same time, the economic trough has been gloomy even after opening up with a high percentage of the workforce losing jobs or facing salary cuts. This despite a majority going back to work in the “unlock” phase.

The survey, titled, The Delhi Coronavirus Telephone Survey (DCVTS), was undertaken in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) in three rounds, between April 3 and 6; April 23 and 26; and June 15 and 23 respectively. The most notable finding during the first round of the survey was the successful communication by the Government of the dangers associated with the virus and the consequent need for a stringent lockdown — nearly 87 per cent of the respondents asserted their support for the lockdown to be extended for two more weeks beyond its original end date of April 14, notwithstanding the hardships caused by it.

The study also throws light on other aspects of dealing with COVID-19, including the level of awareness among the people about the risks and symptoms of the disease; their threat perceptions in terms of the chances of contracting the virus and their attitudes relating to mandated safety protocols such as hand hygiene, social distancing and the use of masks. In addition, it highlights the impact of the lockdown on the incomes and livelihoods of all sections of society.

Pandemic makes inroads: With the virus making nascent inroads into the country during late March and early April, it was important to explore awareness levels about the disease and the possible prevention measures among the general public. A strange paradox that emerged in the first round was the dissonance between people’s perceptions about the dangers posed by the virus and the possibility they envisaged of getting infected themselves.

While almost 95 per cent of them averred that the virus was highly dangerous, as many as 65 per cent of them did not expect themselves or any of their household members to get infected. This sense of confidence in the ability to sidestep the infection was obviously put to the test after the easing of the lockdown in June, which has been followed by a massive surge in positive cases in Delhi and the adjoining areas.

Immediate impact of the lockdown: With a complete shutdown of all activities and commercial establishments starting March 25, the first phase of the NCAER survey  indicated that 25 per cent of the rural and 33 per cent of the urban residents suffered shortages of essential items, including food supplies, cooking fuel and even medicines. Subsequently, however, while shortages of essential supplies somewhat eased when the respondents were interviewed during the second round of the survey in the third week of April, people’s worries had now squarely shifted to the economic impact of the lockdown. The predominant concern during this period was the decline in incomes and loss of livelihoods due to the closure of offices and businesses.

During DCVTS-2, an overwhelming majority of the respondents — 82 per cent —reported loss of income or wages, especially daily wage workers and employees in small businesses. Further, among these, 72 per cent of casual workers complained that their incomes and wages had suffered “very much”, indicating that the brunt of the economic distress was borne by workers from the informal sector. Even among the salaried class, 38 per cent of the workers either received truncated salaries or were relieved of their jobs.

Interestingly, and perhaps as a saving grace, farmers did not seem to be overly affected. Only 34 per cent reported a drop in incomes during the lockdown.  This because most of them were busy harvesting the Rabi crop and doing preparations for the Kharif crop during this period.

Focus on safety measures during “unlock” Phase I: The most conspicuous results of the NCAER’s DCVTS were observed in the third round, which virtually stood at the cusp between the lockdown and phased “unlocking.” Characterised by the opening up of a range of commercial activities and establishments, this period in early June was critical to determine how far people were adhering to safety measures against the disease. Some level of complacency was witnessed after the “unlocking” as 73 per cent of the respondents reported going out for some reason during the period of one week prior to the survey.

More worryingly, as high as 61 per cent of the respondents above the age of 60 years had ventured out of their homes despite the advisory to elderly people to remain indoors as they fall in the high-risk category. Overall, there was a general adherence to the precautionary measures specified by the Government and health authorities, with 95 per cent of the surveyed people affirming that they were wearing masks or face coverings while going out; 66 per cent reported frequent use of hand sanitisers; and only 0.8 per cent of the respondents claimed that they did not follow any precaution at all.

Economic repercussions of COVID-19: In what could signify a gradual economic revival post the lockdown, 78 per cent of the households reported that their members had resumed going to the workplace in the second and third weeks of June. But the trajectory of loss of livelihoods and incomes for daily wage workers and small businesses reported in the second round of the survey continued in the third round, too.

Thus, DCVTS-III showed that more than 70 per cent of the households relying on wage work and business as the main source of income suffered extensive loss of earnings. A large section of these households was also compelled to borrow money to counter financial distress. In fact, medium and small businesses have literally withered under the onslaught of the economic earthquake unleashed by the virus, with 52 per cent of them reporting suspension of activities during the lockdown in May and June and 12 per cent shutting down completely.

Have welfare measures mitigated financial suffering?  Apart from documenting the adverse impact on incomes and wages, the third round of DCVTS also focussed on the role of Government programmes and measures to ameliorate the suffering of the marginalised sections. It was found that a large number of households — 58 per cent of the total surveyed and 61 per cent in Delhi alone — were given extra rations through the use of Aadhaar cards and e-coupons. About 35 per cent received cash transfers from the Government in May and June, taken together. While most of the fund transfers were achieved through Jan Dhan accounts, the Government also used other schemes like the Ujjwala Yojana and PM Kisan programme to offer financial relief to the affected households.

So what does the future portend? The results of three rounds of the NCAER survey could offer some insights to policy makers for negotiating the rough road ahead as we brace to meet the persistent challenges of a virus that refuses to go away. Until a viable vaccine is found, possibly by next year, turning to Virginia Satir’s practical advice to find new ways of coping with the unexpected seems to be our only recourse.

WHO has praised Asia’s biggest slum for containing COVID-19 through community engagement and fast protocols

From being a major cause for concern to being praised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for successfully containing the community spread of the Coronavirus, Asia’s largest slum Dharavi, with a population density of 2.27 lakh per sq km, has come a long way. Along with Italy, Spain and South Korea, Mumbai’s slum cluster has shown that even if the outbreak is very intense and happens in an under-serviced and infrastructure-scarce settlement, it can still be brought back under control. All it needs is a synchronised human drill. Dharavi is indeed a test case of how resource-deprived zones can fight the virus, too. Its 6.5 lakh residents live in an area of just 2.5 km, which challenges the golden mantras for fighting the pandemic, namely social distancing, frequent hand-washing and living in well-ventilated spaces. A minimum of seven to eight people live together in small, 100 square feet dwellings and queue up for water each day as piped water at home is a luxury they can only dream of. A whopping 80 per cent of the slum-dwellers are forced to use community toilets and fresh air and good ventilation is a rarity as homes and factories co-exist in single buildings lining the slum’s narrow lanes. Yet, on July 7, the slum reported only one Coronavirus case and till July 10, the number of cases was just 2,359, a far cry from what was expected when the first case was discovered in Dharavi on April 1. In fact, Western Press editorials had written off Dharavi as a time bomb waiting to explode.

So what was it that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did to turn the tide of the pandemic? Because even as the rest of Mumbai suffered and became a hotspot, Dharavi defied all logic and did not turn into a Corona cesspool. The BMC decided to take the problem by its horns and involved the community in its chase of the virus. It set up teams to reach out to families and they reached out to almost seven lakh people in Dharavi, tracking signs and symptoms and tracing contacts of the infected. Between April 1 and July 10, a whopping 47,500 households were scanned by doctors and private clinics. More than 3.6 lakh people were screened, out of which 14,970 people were screened in mobile vans, thus supplementing the work of overworked health centres. As many as 8,246 senior citizens were surveyed and as the key to containing any pandemic is rigorous testing, the BMC also ran fever clinics to let people get themselves checked without fear. They also checked people’s oxygen saturation levels and if they were below 95 per cent, they were taken to quarantine centres. The logic was that this was faster than testing and in any case it was not possible to test everyone. As it is, they were only able to test 13,500 people. The BMC also employed 350 local private practitioners and if someone was found to have symptoms, they could volunteer to be quarantined even without getting tested. Since home quarantine was never an option in Dharavi, local clubs and schools were converted into quarantine facilities where free food and health check-ups were provided. As many as 2,000 elderly were taken to protective quarantine and only critically-ill patients were admitted to hospitals while 90 per cent patients were treated inside the slum. All private hospitals were taken onboard and acquired for treatment, including Sai Hospital, Prabhat Nursing Home and Family Care. A 200-bed hospital was also set up in a record 14 days. What Dharavi did was that it focussed on community engagement. Politicians and NGOs provided thousands of free meals and rations while Bollywood actors and businessmen donated gear, oxygen cylinders, gloves, masks, medicines and ventilators. Dharavi also followed the basic rules of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those who were sick and hence, broke the chain of transmission and suppressed the virus. And to make sure that the lockdown worked, free meals and rations were provided to residents trapped at home without work and a source of income. It’s not surprising then that Dharavi has turned out to be a beacon of hope for densely populated cities in poor nations and Delhi and other cities struggling with the pandemic could well learn a lesson or two from it. Human endeavour is the biggest cure.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)

India requires a labour law structure that is stable and secure rather than one which changes every few years. The Govt must strike a balance and implement investor-friendly reforms

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines, vulnerabilities and infirmities that exist in India’s labour law and policy framework. On the surface, the country’s  legal structure boasts of 200 State laws and around 45 Central rules that govern the employer-employee relationship. India is a labour surplus country with 47 million unemployed below the age of 24 years and 12-13 million youths joining the labour market every year. Almost 93 per cent of India’s labour force works in the unorganised sector, the majority of whom are unskilled and poorly educated. Nearly 90 per cent of India’s estimated 47 crore workforce is not benefitting from the existing labour law provisions.

But the irony is that the multitude of laws have neither uplifted the socio-economic conditions of the workers nor have they incentivised economic development. This because they “over regulate” and create legal hurdles at every stage of running an enterprise.

Last year, the Union Government drafted four labour codes as part of a process to streamline these laws. They were the Code on Wages (approved by Parliament), the Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security and Welfare and the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions. These codes will subsume within themselves various legislations related to specific areas of labour law. The Government’s move guarantees transparency and accountability. But this is also an opportune time to revisit these laws in the light of the health, safety and livelihood challenges faced by the workers.

Another striking feature of the Indian labour landscape is that the proportion of informal workers in the total participating labour force is a staggering 90 per cent. In other words, 90 per cent of the work force does not have job security or a social safety net.

This became apparent when migrant workers, who form part of the circular economy, were left in the lurch without any social security net to tide over the COVID-19-induced lockdown. Left with no guarantee of shelter, their next meal or any certainty as to when the lockdown would end, the workers started a long and perilous walk back to their home States.

It is paramount to consider the link between the inadequacies in an existing law, its implementation and accountability vis-à-vis the State and the enterprise that has to abide by it. Let us first examine the laws and regulations that are already in place.

For the workers’ benefit, the Government has created certain social security nets like the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme (ESI) and the Provident Fund (PF) for labourers who work in the organised sector. It is the duty of the employers or the contractors to register their employees under these schemes but in practice, they grossly under report the number of such workers to reduce compliance costs. As a result, the JAM trinity-linked direct transfer schemes are difficult to implement because a large number of employees are invisible.

Further, schemes such as the Building and Other Construction Workers  (BoCW), a welfare fund set up under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, meant for the largest section of the migrant workers and informal labour also rely on registration. The Labour Ministry reported that around Rs 31,000 crore was lying unspent in BoCW funds. Several activists have also highlighted that migrant workers did not receive any benefit and that the BoCW fund has registered many bogus workers.

In this context, the need for an accountability and fair work ombudsman has been very much felt. Such an institution would ensure that worker benefit schemes are better implemented and utilised so that their true beneficiaries receive the required social safety net, especially in times of crisis.

Uncertain times call for drastic changes to the labour laws in order to deliver stakeholder benefits. However, in the past month, several States have taken steps to suspend extant labour laws rather than strengthen them.

The primary logic, rather the zeal, behind this move is to incentivise economic growth on the assumption that deregulation through labour law reforms will enhance economic prospects. The Uttar Pradesh Government has proposed the suspension of all labour laws for the next three years. Only those that are related to payment of timely wages, prohibition of bonded labour and health and safety of workers are excluded.

The Madhya Pradesh Government’s amendments focus on new factories and establishments which would be exempted from the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. These State Governments have also suspended the working of the Act, which hampers the rights of a worker to approach the Industrial Tribunal in case of an industrial dispute or seek compensation in case of layoffs and retrenchments.

However, a conjoint reading of Article 246, 213 and 254 of the Constitution demonstrates that a Governor cannot promulgate any ordinance without the assent of the President in relation to an ordinance which suspends labour laws. As of date, the President has not granted such assent to these changes proposed by various States.

One cannot do away with the labour law regulations just to ease pressure on economic growth. Their removal is antithetical to the idea of a social net that makes the workers feel secure at their workplace. Most importantly, these labour changes will last for only three years. Such a sunset clause is bound to detract rather than attract investments due to the short-lived nature of these incentives. Industry requires a labour law structure that is stable and secure rather than one which changes every few years.

The need of the hour is that Governments, while continuing the process to streamline existing laws, strike a balancing act and implement beneficial and investor-friendly labour reforms, which address the deep-rooted problems for the workers’ welfare.

(Writer: Mekhala Pande; Courtesy: The Pioneer)

Denial, panic, scapegoating and ultimate sense are the usual way societies have dealt with new diseases throughout history    

The Pakistani media continues to carry reports about how large sections of society are being careless in their attitude towards the pandemic. It slams the Government for bungling the crisis by being misinformed about the dynamics of Covid-19 and its spread. Many have also criticised the regime for allowing its political biases to impact its contingency policies, which have so far been chaotic and almost entirely unable to stall the virus’ rapid spread. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and many of his Ministers have been censured for “misinforming” the people about the true nature of the disease while, at the same time, vetoing the idea of strict lockdowns. So, as the outbreak ravages the country with frightening speed, Khan does not have much to say or show other than claim that he knew things were going to get bad.

With examples like China, Italy, Spain, Iran and the US before us, it didn’t require a genius to “know” that things would get bad here as well. Even though Khan was hailed by his sycophantic circle of Ministers for being oracular for this insightful prediction, he had also earlier described the disease as, merely, a “flu.”

The Government then continued to add unsubstantiated claptrap to its largely convoluted narrative in this regard, until intense media criticism triggered a sudden volte-face and saw the Government resort to accusing the general populace for letting things get out of hand. What’s more, the Government also continued to ignore some rational advice from provincial governments and health experts. One such advice was for imposing stricter lockdowns. But the PM disagreed. Instead, he began to rationalise his disapproval of lockdowns as an egalitarian act, undertaken for the benefit of the poor.

This rationale was almost immediately debunked by some writers on the economy. Business and economics journalist Khurram Hussain pointed out that lockdowns were, in fact, opposed by the business community, and members of this community were influencing Khan’s anti-lockdown sentiments. Veteran journalist and political pundit Najam Sethi shared similar views. Martin Gak in a piece for the German news site DW explains the idea of opening up businesses (and thus, allowing the deaths of thousands from Covid-19) as the 21st century equivalent of an ancient past, in which human sacrifice was practised in some cultures, supposedly for the well-being of the larger community.

The outbreak in Pakistan was further compounded by a controversial Supreme Court order in which the court asked provincial governments to open malls and markets before Eid. Not surprisingly, two weeks after that, Coronavirus cases in Pakistan witnessed an unprecedented spike.

But Pakistan is not the only country where the Government has badly botched the response to the pandemic and where the denial of its dangers or existence can be found in large sections of society. Similar scenarios are being played out in the US, Brazil, Mexico and India. Interestingly, each one of these, like Pakistan, have governments headed by populists.

The Brazilian PM actually took part in an anti-lockdown rally and then issued an order that the number of Corona cases in Brazil should not be reported. US President Donald Trump claimed that the virus threat was insignificant.

In India, it became apparent that the Narendra Modi regime only had the muscle to impose its Hindutva ideology but had no idea how to control the virus. In Pakistan, Khan with nothing to show in this respect, ended up somewhat absurdly gloating that Pakistan was the only Muslim country where mosques were not closed for prayers. As if this were some colossal achievement in a time of a raging pandemic.

Journalist and novelist Karl Taro Greenfeld writes that historically societies often go through “four stages of grief” during pandemics and plagues.

Mount Saint Vincent University’s Professor Jonathan Roberts, an expert on the history of plagues, agrees. Roberts says that the historical pattern in which societies behave during pandemics has remained intact and that he is seeing the same pattern being repeated during the current outbreak.

Roberts has been investigating the ancient and modern histories of social and political responses to contagions. The pattern he was talking about starts with outright denial of an outbreak, followed by a panic reaction. This is then followed by scapegoating, which is tied to the emergence of conspiracy theories. On a more hopeful note, Robert suggests that in the fourth stage, those in power finally allow the proliferation of correct information to get out. But by then, thousands of lives have been lost and economies devastated. What’s more, a community of people who are blamed for the outbreak during the scapegoating stage, would have suffered severe ostracism and harassment. This is related to what the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls an “infodemic”, when madcap theories, once relegated to the lunatic fringes of society, suddenly emerge on the mainstream during the fear triggered by an outbreak.

Author and medical sociologist Dr Robert Bartholomew says that Jews were blamed for the 14th Century Bubonic Plague in Europe and the 1918 flu pandemic — which killed millions — was dubbed the Spanish Flu, not because Spain was the outbreak’s epicentre but because the Spanish Government was the first to identify the problem. During the same pandemic, many in Britain believed that the virus was a germ created by the German military, even though an equal number of Germans were dying from it. With the proliferation of social media sites, unsubstantiated claims, denials and scapegoating have increased at an alarming rate about the source country of the virus.

But for Robertson and Greenfeld, there is light at the end of this tunnel. Both claim that, historically, the last stage of the aforementioned historical pattern is when societies and rulers come to their senses and work to address and contain the problem.

Rational contingency plans and their implementation, scientifically- sound advice to the public and the debunking of crackpot theories are vital. Unfortunately, many countries like Pakistan still seem to be stuck in the earlier stages of reaction: Denial, confusion and scapegoating. Only a handful of nations have moved into the more hopeful fourth stage.

Almost every scientist is trying to make a contribution to the pandemic. This has led to everyone, including non-scientists, writing on almost every aspect of the crisis. How does one make sense?

COVID-19 has left the world bewildered as much as it has challenged the global scientific community, which is making every possible effort to learn more about the virus, find effective diagnostic assays, drugs and vaccines for its cure. Learning about the structure, behaviour and prevalence of the virus to help design public health strategies and medical interventions is the need of the hour. Almost every scientist is trying to make a contribution to the pandemic. This has led to everyone, including non-scientists, writing and publishing on almost every aspect of the spread. The research efforts of the scientific community are visible from the mammoth quantities of data generated through publications, growing by thousands every day. More than 4,000 new scientific papers pertaining to the disease and the virus were added just in a week’s time.

COVID-19 papers have been downloaded more than 150 million times since publishers brought down paywalls on research related to the pandemic. Since January, several major publishers have made around 50,000 COVID-19-related papers freely available. This is the biggest explosion scientific literature has ever seen.  It is becoming increasingly difficult for scientists to keep pace with the growing volumes of information and sifting through all of it to find that which is relevant to their areas of research. The world is grappling to find ways to manage and effectively use the scientific information being generated. Thankfully, data scientists and software developers across the world have geared up with the help of  journal publishers to create new search tools. These are in the form of datasets through data cleaning efforts and curated sets that bunch publications into collections of similar studies, while also highlighting the strong papers in those areas of research.

Efforts are also being made to cut out unnecessary noise through automated search tools via Artificial Intelligence (AI) so that a researcher lands at the information being sought, thus saving a lot of time and effort. Several datasets and databases have surfaced to help ease the COVID information overload crisis for researchers.

WHO COVID-19 database: The World Health Organisation has a WHO COVID-19 database that gathers latest international multilingual scientific findings and knowledge. Searches and additions are made on a daily basis to the dataset through bibliographic databases, hand searches and expert-referred scientific articles from global literature. Efforts are on to build a more comprehensive database through collaboration with key partners to enrich citations. The WHO database has over 18,000 publications, searchable in many languages by title, abstract or subject. Its global research page provides quick updates. There is an international clinical trials registry platform that provides updates on the WHO Solidarity Trial for accelerating a safe and effective vaccine.

The Lancet COVID-19 Resource Centre: It brings together new content from across The Lancet journals as it is published, making the content free to access in order to assist health workers and researchers. Similarly, there are other resources on COVID-19 like Cambridge University Press, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Medical Association, Cochrane, Elsevier, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), JAMA Network, The Lancet, LITCOVID: US National Library of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine and, Oxford University Press.

The CORD-19 dataset: The COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge,  an initiative of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has brought together the Semantic Scholar team at the Allen Institute for AI with the likes of Google, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a free resource of open tools and datasets of over 63,000 scholarly articles.

This is the largest structured dataset that caters to the ongoing need of the global research community for which the corpus is updated regularly with current research featuring in peer-reviewed publications from sources like PubMed’s PMC, corpus maintained by the WHO and from archival services like bioRxiv, medRxiv and so on, based on search COVID-19 and Coronavirus research. In addition to the above major databases, there are numerous other datasets, literature repositories, specific information resources, re-purposing databases and technological advancements that are helping the world make meaning out of the mayhem.

Ethical concerns due to rapid publication rate: There is ample reason to be concerned about the quality of data as well as regulatory and ethical issues surrounding data generated at such a quick pace. Questions on gaps in information generated, its quality and thoroughness have been raised. A recent retraction in The Lancet and the scandal associated with it is proof enough of this cause for concern. Social media platforms have been instrumental in releasing quick information about research findings of significance and providing instant feedback through online comments or suggestions for the study, as also linking the information with similar studies going on elsewhere in the world. However, not all significant research findings garner the same attention on social media platforms for researchers to pick up and relate. In fact, some do not surface on such platforms at all or drown in endless tweets or Facebook posts when there is too much to report on a subject and it’s hard to catch up, till you are spending too much time on these platforms.

A general search for research publications, based on key words like Coronavirus and COVID-19, has shown that while there are quite a few promising studies and publications of high quality that can be pursued further, most other publications are either analysis, commentaries or incomplete studies that have been reported to either hasten publication or be visible. A thorough peer review is missing in most cases and hence, the authenticity or the quality of data raises grave concern. In many cases, research findings reported do not support the conclusions that have been stepped up to ensure publication in prestigious journals. While most of the literature on COVID-19 is freely available, around 20 per cent of the research publications are still behind paywalls, and this percentage is expected to grow in the near future to almost half of the total. That makes a comprehensive analysis quite difficult.

The role of biological resource centres: Rapid data sharing is important to help identify the causative agent; investigate and predict the extent of disease spread; define diagnostic protocols and evaluate treatments and methods to contain further spread. The types of information that can be collated and shared may include surveillance data, trial data, pathogen genomic and proteomic data, case study reports and summary of observations from these data sources.

The users may include data scientists, bioentrepreneurs, clinicians, public health workers, researchers, governments, NGOs, disaster management experts, regulatory bodies and so on. However, there are multiple barriers to rapid data sharing, including concerns over data protection, confidentiality and different data protection legislations across countries. Other major barriers may be poor curation tools and quality of data. There is little doubt that breakthroughs in various facets of biotechnology will hugely impact our societies and lives almost as profoundly as information technologies have done in the past. Data sharing is necessary for enabling the global community to prepare for and respond to pandemics and similar global health crisis and speed up the diagnostic and therapeutic regimen.

With major sequencing efforts across the world resulting in massive biological data accumulation, storing, managing, annotating and archiving it has become quite a scientific challenge. Using this growing body of information to dig out solutions to the challenges is the need of the hour. Although, there are many biological data centres across US and Europe, access to biological data resources remains restricted due to different data protection policies. As a result, researchers from many developing economies could not access this.

While the world awaits a biological discovery, our trust in science to handle the global crisis and impact scientific, societal, political and economic decisions only grows with passing time. This can also have a separate dimension for storage, accession and archival of published information on infectious organisms to aid the researcher.

(Writer: Deepika Bhaskar/ Feroz Suri; Courtesy: The Pioneer)