Santhosh's ramblings

Two years have passed since the start of the pandemic. I remember in 2020 February, traveling in South East Asia, and listening to some leaders who were sure that this pandemic was a conspiracy by certain nations. Two years down the line, we are still are unclear and WHO is requesting for stronger collaboration to sort this issue out!   I remember while in the airport, my family forcing me to buy a N95 mask at an exorbitant price, to protect from something we did not know then well. Today we know somethings better but there are still many unknowns! Few weeks later in early March, out in a rural hospital in North India, we were having challenging conversations. Listening to the stories coming from New York hospitals, stories of many dying, health care professionals succumbing to the illness, systems overwhelmed by the numbers, we were wondering what would happen to us and our communities where there were no masks, PPEs or systems to care.  Then the lockdown happened. Governmen...

As I start to write this article, the news of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 virus is the main news in media. By the time this article reaches you, the context of COVID-19, might have changed, for better or worse, I do not know. But one thing is sure, we are living in uncertain times. Most nations and experts were sure that we are turning around the bend, only to be disproved again, like the multiple times over the last few months. As of today, ongoing uncertainty seems to be the new normal. Uncertainty that comes out of a new normal of living with the virus. Epidemics can end two ways - transmission is well controlled and new cases come down to zero, and the epidemic is history. The other is, the disease becomes an ongoing part of the infectious-disease landscape, or an endemic. The shift from pandemic to endemic entails a number of practical considerations for managing the epidemic and the way we live. But the shift is also psychological, as we will be deprived of the satisfaction ...