How to stop the orgy of coronavirus killing: Vaccine and scientists are not of immediate help

NEW DELHI, Sept 23: In the midst of a raging coronavirus pandemic that is taking away lives in thousands every day, and into the ninth month of its danse macabre upon the earth, what are the options before us to halt this slaughter.

There are four: First, follow the preventive steps strictly and wait for a vaccine. But vaccine takes years. This is because it has to run a predetermined course although some stages can be dropped in an emergency like the present one. Many vaccines are in the pipeline but the earliest is 2021 end to achieve mass vaccination - there is unanimity among experts on this. However, there is no guarantee on the safety and efficacy of any vaccine developed so far.

The second is finding a medicine. But this is a worse scenario because finding or discovering a new medicine is an open ended quest. No time limit can be set except when luck favours a chance discovery.

Neither helps in the present crisis. The third possibility is herd immunity. This happens when over a 60% or so of the population gets the infection and achieves immunity so that chances of transmission get reduced drastically. But hoping for this amounts to 'cruelty.'

The fourth alternative is a practical solution to save maximum number of lives. As the vaccine will take too long and that at a time when the epidemic has already claimed one million lives in nine months, and the scientists are still at a loss to decipher the full gamut of the features of this new coronavirus in order to neutralise the pathogen with a new drug, let us turn to the doctors who have by now learnt enough from their field experience of dealing with this totally complicated and new disease how to clinically manage the killer virus presenting undefined symptoms.

Their learning from the observation and experience of the complicated symptoms have started saving lives in large numbers. When a doctor in Kolkata after observing the realities face to face has stumbled upon the uses of proning or in London another doctor has found that nasal decontamination just at the start of a severe infection saved life, what is the working mechanism to share the clinical discovery with all other healthcare personnel around the world instantly?

Do we have a working mechanism? What is the purpose of the white elephant called WHO that only colluded with the Chinese in the investigation of the leak of the virus. Only Trump had the courage of conviction to say "we have no money for them." Just a look at their briefing in the evening shows how the bureaucracy is living in its comforts! The world's top health adviser told us in March, the mask is NOT for the common man. A matter of shame. Again, in June it made a layman-like announcement that dexamethasone - a petty anti-inflammatory drug - is "the green shoots of hope" for coronavirus, because British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said so!