Bobby Ramakant - CNS
Gandhi had warned us against 7 sins, one of them was SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY.
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One of the seven sins we should not commit, as warned by Mahatma Gandhi, is "science without humanity". But are we conscious enough to ensure that the global fight against Covid is mindful of Gandhi ji's message?
Right before Gandhi ji's birth anniversary, government of India announced its reciprocal policy for UK nationals arriving in India to undergo mandatory quarantine for 10 days after their arrival (regardless of their vaccination status). Earlier, UK had announced its travel policy that Indians, regardless of their vaccination status, will have to undergo the mandatory quarantine for 10 days after arriving in the UK.
UK had announced an even more problematic policy but it had course-corrected when valid protests emerged against it not recognising vaccinated Indians because 90% of those fully vaccinated in India had received the vaccine (Oxford AstraZeneca) whose scientific research and development was done by UK-based agencies (though it was made in India by Serum Institute of India). Valid questions were raised - will UK also not recognise its own citizens who have received the same vaccine--but not made in India? Thankfully, sanity prevailed and after few days and intense lobbying around the United Nations General Assembly, UK government clarified that it does recognise the India-made Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine but its concern was towards vaccine-certification process in India.
Indian government says that UK's travel policy is discriminatory towards Indians. That is why Indian government announced that from October 2021, all UK nationals travelling to India will also have to undergo a pre-departure Covid-19 RT-PCR test within 72 hours before travel, another RT-PCR test on arrival at the airport, and an RT-PCR test on the eighth day after arrival. They will also have to quarantine at home or at their destination address for 10 days.
Is nationalism trumping over science?
Not just UK and India but all countries worldwide need to be on the same page that the only possible way out of the pandemic is we stand united and progress together with oft-quoted chant by governments "no one is left behind". Populations worldwide need to be fully vaccinated in a time-bound manner (United Nations health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) target for all countries is to vaccinate 70% of populations globally by June 2022). Vaccinating populations globally will reduce severity of the disease and bring down Covid deaths drastically (as has happened in countries where large part of the population is fully vaccinated) as well as may give us hope to invoke herd immunity that may possibly show us the path out of the pandemic. However inequitable rollout of vaccine is so ugly with 80% of 6 billion vaccine doses delivered in rich nations so far. Hope this changes for more equity in vaccine rollout worldwide.
All countries also need to break the chain of infection transmission. People should wear proper masks, maintain physical distance, hygiene, and other measures to curtail the risk of infection spread, as much as possible.
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