Flu questions the prudence of the jab

Herd immunity through the latest flu is keeping the pandemic at bay. Still, it is unclear whether it is artificial or natural. Jabbed and un-jabbed are equal to the infection of flu. Still, the unvaccinated are second-grade citizens. 

Recently ICMR changed the interstate testing policy. Though it is not yet clear, I take it that there is no need for the RT PCR test if one is asymptomatic. By the same equation, recently a group of 32 doctors from India, US and Canada wrote a letter addressing Central and State governments, the Indian Medical Association and doctors. In the letter, they mentioned: “While there continues to be much uncertainty amidst the outbreak of this novel disease, there is now substantive high-quality scientific literature that provides unequivocal guidance on the clinical management of Covid-19. Despite the weight of this evidence and the crushing death toll of the delta wave, we find the mistakes of the 2021 response being repeated in 2022.” They also warned the doctors against the wanton use of drugs and widespread abuse of inappropriate medications.

Finally, experts admit that there is already a herd immunity in place. It seems the Government of India also has realised this fact and the importance of looking beyond the lockdown option. The Prime Minister also advised States to focus on livelihood instead of curbs and restrictions. It is a good move if States are ready to obey his suggestions.

Even in a democracy, no system makes the rulers answer the citizens’ questions on a governing foul. Had there been any such convention the vaccine would have landed the rulers in a hot soup. Clarity of the efficacy of the vaccine was missing since the trial stage. First, the vaccine was for one dose, later it increased to two. Not it is three. Israel is running the fourth dose. The interval period between two doses kept widening, seemingly according to the production capacity of the vaccine factories.

Now the government has made two doses mandatory for people to move out. However, many people are medically unfit for the jabs. On the other side, the Omicron is spreading like a wildfire. Whether the vaccine could protect or not is not yet clear. But we will have to buy what the government and experts sell as a correct version! None can question them. Whatever pharmaceutical companies and vaccine makers made was a façade. Their mask of science fell. People took Omicron as flu. There are Covid-19 patients at every home, every workplace, every street, every flight, every train. The flu is universally present. Covid-19 was also a viral fever. But a furore generated around it made it a deadlier disease. In the third wave, the viral fever has broken all controls. Slowly, the government also started moving in the right direction. Massive flu is generating herd immunity. Some people say the flu named Omicron signals the end of the pandemic. Still, the third jab will follow.

Many people took the vaccine out of fear. Some people have taken it under compulsion because some of their fundamental rights are at stake. Naturally, any strict rule makes people break it or explore short-cut to stem the rule. In Maharashtra, the law-breakers paid penalties of Rs 280 crore during the lockdown period. Those who do not want to take vaccines may make a fictitious certificate to pass their hurdles.

Strict rules and misconstrued notions about the virus killed too many people. What ultimately happened? Is it the Covid-19 that compelled people to vaccinate? Or, isn’t it the vaccination that made the people Covid-19 victims? The third wave was a great leveller. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated are equal before the virus. But before the law, they are of two categories. The logic is hard to digest.