{"id":241382,"date":"2023-05-08T20:33:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=241382"},"modified":"2023-05-08T20:33:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:03:17","slug":"with-covid-19-over-applying-the-lessons-learnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/with-covid-19-over-applying-the-lessons-learnt\/","title":{"rendered":"With COVID-19 \u2018over\u2019, applying the lessons learnt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cWith COVID-19 \u2018over\u2019, applying the lessons learnt\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 8th May 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Issues related to development and management of healthy<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to epidemics<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>World Health Organization, on May 5, 2023, declared that COVID\u00ad19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern.<\/p>\n

What are the lessons learnt from the COVID management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Misinformation<\/strong>– There have been knee\u00adjerk and unscientific responses<\/strong> to spikes in COVID\u00ad19 cases. The most recent example is the response in March\u00ad-April 2023, when there was a rise in viral flu and SARS\u00adCoV\u00ad2 cases.<\/p>\n

It led to the closure of schools in some Indian cities and States. In some schools, mask wearing was made a mandatory condition<\/strong> for children to attend classes. This, in some instances, happened without a formal government directive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was not supported by scientific evidence.<\/strong> There was misinformation<\/strong>, and social media influencers were shaping the public discourse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neglect of local contexts<\/strong>– In outbreaks and epidemics, policy interventions and preventive advice<\/strong> need to factor in the local context<\/strong>. The context determines the epidemiological pattern, spread of disease and proposed interventions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

China faced a wave in December 2022. Switzerland, in April 2023, decided not to continue with any more COVID\u00ad19 vaccination. Countries have made decisions based on the local context. However, that does not mean every other country should do exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n

Approach of influencers<\/strong>– An extremely worrying trend has been the dogmatic stand <\/strong>adopted by self proclaimed experts and influencers. They selectively and use emerging evidence and published literature<\/strong> to support their stand.<\/p>\n

A few influencers have positioned themselves as \u2018super reviewers\u2019 of scientific studies<\/strong>. They have used social media platforms to find limitations and criticise even the most robust studies. They often fail to factor in that no scientific study is ideal. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In late April 2023, the not for profit Foundation for People \u00adCentric Health Systems<\/strong> Analysed the trends and stance of influencers and experts on social media platforms and in newspaper reports on the COVID\u00ad19 linked mask enforcement<\/strong> for school children.<\/p>\n

Those based out of India were analysed into three sub\u00adgroups: trained or practising public health experts and epidemiologists; other medical doctors\u00a0 and super\u00adspecialists; and everyone else.<\/p>\n

The fourth group was of those who had had an opinion about India but living abroad, irrespective of their education.<\/p>\n

In the subgroup of trained public health experts and epidemiologists, there was near consensus that schools should not be closed, and\u00a0 there was no role in making mask wearing mandatory for children.<\/p>\n

Most clinicians and infectious diseases were a bit more supportive of masking, but very few supported universal masking for any age group.<\/p>\n

In the sub\u00adgroup of super\u00adspecialists, there was greater endorsement of mask wearing for children and of school closure.<\/p>\n

Experts\u2019 and influencers living outside India were making stronger arguments for school closure and mask wearing for children in India.<\/p>\n

COVID foreverers<\/strong>– There exist\u00a0 groups of \u2018COVID\u00ad foreverers.<\/strong> They keep insisting on the enforcement of restrictions such as universal masking. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the way forward for a sound approach on epidemic management in the present context?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

COVID\u00ad19 has \u2018officially\u2019 transitioned from a population level challenge to more of an individual health concern<\/strong>. It is time for calm assessment, to shift the gears<\/strong> and also apply the lessons<\/strong> from the last three years.<\/p>\n

The government should offer formal training courses<\/strong> on the principles and practice of epidemiology<\/strong> to prepare India for more nuanced responses <\/strong>to outbreaks and epidemics and to curb misinformation.<\/p>\n

The government needs to integrate <\/strong>the COVID\u00ad19 response to general health services<\/strong>. There is no role of universal measures against COVID\u00ad19 to be enforced.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s response to surges, outbreaks, and epidemics should be guided by a nuanced understanding<\/strong> of epidemiology and not unduly derailed by \u2018social media influencers\u2019.<\/p>\n

Therefore, in future, schools should not be closed for a COVID\u00ad19 uptick. Wearing masks<\/strong> in order to attend school should never again be made mandatory.<\/p>\n

It is time to drop the COVID\u00ad19 fixation and move on to tackle other more pressing health challenges<\/strong> in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cWith COVID-19 \u2018over\u2019, applying the lessons learnt\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 8th May 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to development and management of healthy Relevance– Issues related to epidemics News- World Health Organization, on May 5, 2023, declared that COVID\u00ad19 was no longer a public health… Continue reading With COVID-19 \u2018over\u2019, applying the lessons learnt<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-241382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":4,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1699556574},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}