COVID-19 testing: This year has witnessed the most unprecedented alterations in the sphere of wellness. To recognize the emerging trends worldwide and to acknowledge the sweeping alterations would be akin to looking for a needle in the haystack. However, there are scientific voices of caution and reasoning which acknowledge the pathbreaking alterations and trends that are emerging. As we appear to wrap up this year that has now scripted history as the year of the Coronavirus pandemic. we need to have to recognize how collaborations have played a pivotal function in ramping up India’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Known as a visionary scientist, an eminent Rhodes Scholar and possessing been the former Chairman of the University Grants Commission (2017), Dr Virander Singh Chauhan is renowned for his investigation contributions in the field of malaria vaccine improvement and biological application of synthetic peptides. Speaking exclusively to The The Spuzz Online’s Swapna Raghu Sanand, he says, “At the outset, we must note that governmental and scientific collaboration has been excellent in India, especially for the development of new testing systems. In India—as well as internationally—the scientific community has embraced collaboration.”
Dr. Virander Singh Chauhan is at the moment the chairman of the EC of NAAC and involved in the scholarship schemes such as the Rhodes, Inlaks and Felix Scholarships for Indian students. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012 in recognition of his scientific and human resource improvement operate. Currently he serves as an emeritus professor at the ICGEB, exactly where he had earlier served as director of the institute spanning 1998 to 2014.
In your encounter, how has India fared so far in its testing and tracing method effectiveness?
Respecting all the limitations of a diverse, complicated nation, India has accomplished reasonably properly, even when compared to some higher-revenue nations. In the starting, India had hardly any facilities. These have been swiftly created as the response to the pandemic was ramped up. Local production soared, and a lot of material essential for testing is now becoming produced in India. What desires to be appreciated is the speed with which we acted to fill in the gaps. It is inevitable that some states have accomplished properly, and some could’ve accomplished far better, but we ought to contemplate this as a studying encounter to be far better ready for any future pandemics that may perhaps come our way.
Now that investigation and improvement is creating new sorts of higher-excellent testing platforms (such as CRISPR) that raise accessibility, we have to maintain evolving and strengthening our testing method to make it a lot more targeted and powerful so that it dovetails properly into the vaccine method of India.
What are your thoughts on ICMR’s evolving testing suggestions for COVID-19?
Given the challenge as it sprang out, the unprecedented nature of the predicament and the numerous resource limitations, the ICMR has accomplished a affordable job. However, a couple of regions that could have shown improvement are the dissemination of excellent information and facts, far better information gathering and sharing, and placing forth a coherent method on how to deal with it.
In your opinion, what are the tools and insights required for scientists and epidemiologists to include the pandemic, but are at the moment lacking in India?
There is a increasing need to have for correct reporting on COVID-19 information. Today, it is feasible to consume significant datasets, but correct now we lack excellent information collection and sharing systems. There is an urgent need to have for a centralized reporting technique for the COVID-19 information that is coming in. Add to this the variable information coming in from every single state, and the information management and evaluation really suffers. Epidemiologists demand excellent surveillance systems, and very good excellent serological testing and information on exposure. In the absence of a centralised technique, information remains scattered, and policymaking suffers.
How can the government and scientific neighborhood operate with each other to assure far better and a lot more equitable access to COVID-19 testing, specially in rural India?
At the outset, we ought to note that governmental and scientific collaboration has been superb in India, specially for the improvement of new testing systems. In India—as properly as internationally—the scientific neighborhood has embraced collaboration. This collaboration in between international and national institutes was coupled with immense governmental assistance, which meant that India has been capable to create a lot of tests locally. It is only a matter of time ahead of we start off scaling up test production even additional. When it comes to equity, this scale up will ultimately lead to a fall in rates which ought to contribute to the equitable access to COVID-19 testing. As we move forward, all these dynamic alterations need to have to reflect in our testing method, so we assure that the efforts are channelized towards the finest suited outcomes.
Many authorities are speaking about lack of correct information concerning COVID-19 management in India? What are your views on it?
Our health-related technique is inherently complicated, which has meant that information collection and sharing has been tricky in between states. Other nations with significant populations have also suffered with information gathering, but India—with its digital prowess—could have produced a far better work towards information collection and sharing. This information ought to be produced accessible to researchers, policymakers and the frequent man. Even if the information shows that the management of COVID-19 could have been far better, we shouldn’t shy away from our faults. It is correct that there will be criticism, but it is also correct that very good excellent information will lead to far better policy outcomes.
As a scientist who has been involved with vaccine developments in the previous, what are your thoughts on vaccines for COVID-19?
Never in the history of any illness in the planet have vaccines been created with such speed. This is mainly because our predicament comes at a distinctive point in history: we have information on SARS-1 (a genetic cousin of COVID-19) which produced us familiar, we have new vaccine platforms that didn’t exist 20 years ago, and there is governmental as properly as international assistance for scientific collaboration. Due to these things, we now have more than one hundred vaccines worldwide, of which a lot of have gone by way of phase 1 trials. It will not be lengthy ahead of vaccines are offered for use. Additionally, as soon as mass production starts, the vaccines will grow to be increasingly economical. The availability of a vaccine does not, having said that, imply that we can cease taking precautions. That would be foolishness. We ought to continue to test and isolate, and comply with the common protocols of hand hygiene, making use of masks and social distancing.