This time-tested, effective strategy could help tackle COVID-19 but poses unique challenges in India

“Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine’, now in its 20th edition, was our favourite even in the 1980s. Amongst its multiple editors is a diminutive soft-spoken man who has had a remarkable career as an infectious disease scientist. Anthony Fauci must be doing something right.

Undoubtedly, the hierarchy of the Covid vaccine ladder will be one of the most fiercely contested spaces the world has seen for some time; both between countries and within them. It won’t be surprising if Adar Poonawalla’s phone is ringing incessantly with calls from the who’s who for keeping that one vaccine reserved.

During the first month of Covid, when I wrote in this column that an acquaintance had called to ask whether he could ‘prebook’ an ICU bed, I received incredulous responses. I don’t know whether the gentleman needed an ICU bed, but in a devious sort of way he was indeed far-sighted.

In an attempt to distill out the ‘positives’ from the debris of Covid, there are some big ideas that were executed seriously by the state for the first time, that need to be kept alive.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have unwittingly led to some desirable changes; the challenge is to build on this

Mumbai embarks on a pathbreaking experiment of a massive expansion of ICU facilities to deal with one needs to realise that there are challenging areas difficult to fix quickly but the earlier we recognise their importance the faster we will move from optics to effective action.