ICMR finally finds BCG vaccine is effective for coronavirus - in
elderly! |
COMMENT: Why the study was conducted only on the elderly is
not known. That too coming after 10 months and losing 10
lakh lives. In the first place, is there any need to depend on
research in such emergencies especially when doctors gather
patient history and if BCG is a factor can be found in simple
clinical coordination in no time! Village folks in India were
heard correlating a BCG connection in their usual afternoon sessions
way back in the month of February. Correlation is a basic brain
function, needing no formal education. Remember Pavlov? And
BCG itself is 100 years old! |
NEW DELHI, Oct 30: A study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) has come to the conclusion that BCG vaccination for tuberculosis is also
effective in preventing coronavirus, among the elderly people.
However, it should not be construed that BCG is not effective among other people.
Simply, their study was only on the elderly and why was it so limited is not
known. Misleading.
Here is a sample of a similar thinking that doesn't sync with commonsense.
That a study, obviously another fat-budgeted project, said that mouth wash and
nasal rinses do not give protection against coronavirus because there is no
evidence and there is no evidence because no research has been undertaken. Conveying
by default that mouth wash and nasal rinses will not help because there was no research! This was reproduced by a leading publication in a prominent slot. News
today has become a marketed item to promote various interests. What was sought to be conveyed here was that there has not been any research so far conducted to find out whether mouth wash and nasal rinses give protection against coronavirus! Superfluous and misleading!
It's about ten months that coronavirus is playing havoc around the world, killing
thousands a day, without any let-up. And BCG is with us for about 100 years.
The village folks were guessing about a connection way back in February.
About BCG, does it take billions in so-called budget allocation and huge infrastructure
to find out after some decades if among the thousands of people dying of coronavirus
every day who had taken the BCG vaccination and who had not? At least randomly.
We lack in basic coordinating mechanisms that cost nothing! Because it costs
nothing!
In fact, when it was found that the virus transmisssion was
quite slow in India in the beginning despite its proximity to
the place of origin of the virus, Wuhan in China, the illiterate
Indian villagers began discussing a BCG connection soon after
the essential features of the pathogen were discovered and
made known to the public: That it is a respiratory disease like
tuberculosis and so it can spread through cough and
exhalation. A scientist from one of our Harvard-like
institutions, coming across this hearsay,
applied for substantial funds to take up the study, also
claiming he is the first to propound the hypothesis. His
demand for money was promptly turned down for good. But he
got it from some innocent institution in the West!
Recently it was reported in the press that NCP boss Sharad Pawar, 79, went
all the way to the Serum Institute of India in Pune to find out about BCG and
also get a shot! “It increases immunity and I got it administered,” the NCP
chief told reporters there. But he could get it done at home!
The ICMR research concluded, “BCG vaccination was associated with enhanced
innate and adaptive memory cell subsets, as well as total antibody levels in
elderly individuals, suggesting its potential utility in SARS-Cov-2 infection
by enhancing heterologous immunity.”
The 100-year old BCG vaccine is administered to babies as a part of national
health programmes for about 70 years or more in India.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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ARCHIVES
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
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Neighbours Calling
Bhutan
Nepal
Malaysia
Dubai
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
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