Man- the porter or victim or evangelist of coronavirus – Ct value reveals the peril of medical aggrandisement in India

Showing curiosity and having respect over someone’s knowledge in ‘something’ has proven to spoil not only the knowledge quest of the so called ‘scholar’ due to the possible inflation ego, but also would terminate the enthusiasm of the ‘confessed ignorant’ from learning anything beyond the scholar. 

Indians greatly suffer from the above malaise.  We made our medical experts, especially the clinicians more than life but most of them are ignorant at heart and proven doesn’t deserve such recognition.

How a pathogen can evolve with extraordinary smartness and unique power to use ‘man’ as its porter, victim and also an evangelist at the same time?  We allowed the so called experts to abuse our nation through their ignorance and made the country believe what they speak alone were gospel science and which resulted in senseless lockdown and economic destruction. 

During the fag end of 2019, people were chased and caught for RT-PCR test and then pushed inside the so called quarantine chamber and containment zones to prevent the viral spread.  Subsequently all those asymptomatic people were also caricatured as the ‘possible vector’ of the pathogen and proclaimed that they might ring the death bell of others if they are allowed to move freely in the society. 

 

To add another absurdity cap to the entire exercise, it was suggested that until RT-PCR negative result is achieved, the person must be quarantined.  The medical fraternity not only tried to make hay while sunshine but also tried even to melt and weld iron in the new sunshine. 

What RT-PCR detects is only the viral genome and not the live virus, the author had claimed at several occasions.  https://dranganathans.blogspot.com/2020/08/is-initial-viral-load-determines.html. The author also hypothesised that the asymptomatic people may remain so may be due the inability of the virus to proliferate in them and may not due to disease tolerance or goldilocks situation. 

When the virus cannot proliferate, how such people can spread the virus was the question the author had raised.  Therefore the viral isolation and RT PCR positivity must be correlated at least in a few statistically relevant populations and only then we can establish the underlying secret behind asymptomatic condition. https://dranganathans.blogspot.com/2020/04/you-carry-rna-or-live-coronavirus-when.html

If we go by the numbers of positive cases as on today, India may be the last country in the world to get rid of the virus or else, like Dengue, Chikungunya and other third world diseases, novel coronavirus also may stay in India forever. 

Today the science (obviously not come from India, thanks to the wisdom of ICMR, CSIR, DST, DBT, AIIMS etc.,) has revealed that PCR test must be decoded to understand the Ct (Cycle threshold) value to predict the possible viral load and associated viral dissemination or shedding. (Viral RNA load as determined by cell culture as a management tool for discharge of SARS-CoV-2 patients from infectious wards, European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, 2020).

Ct in layman’s language means the ‘effort’ required to amplify the viral genome by PCR.  RNA of the virus is first converted into DNA and then is amplified. 30 – 34 Ct is considered to be the least viral load.  The greater the effort required for amplifying the DNA means, lower the viral load and lower the effort means, greater the viral load.  The question is whether people with high viral load also can remain asymptomatic?

The European scientists have also correlated their findings with viral culture in cell lines.  The above findings clearly shows that the virus can be contracted by anyone but only the susceptible alone succumbs to disease and those who are further more vulnerable may die.   This is true with any other pathogen. 

But the ‘ignorant evangelists’ of novel coronavirus engaged partly by the government as well as those self-appointed in the niche had spread the fear that all those positive for the virus without symptoms are nothing but the true vectors of the virus and hence the asymptomatic people must be identified and isolated. 

The question is how can we call a virus that is incapable of even multiplying in vast majority of people as deadly pathogen? 

What is so new about novel coronavirus? 

Have we not been affected by RNA virus before?  From the Ct value of many RNA viruses, why we did not attempt to correlate the possible role of inoculum size and disease and inoculum size and viral spread and instead we made our health department to behave like a leech gatherer, running after everyone to take sample, test and then fry and roast those positive cases in the pan called quarantine?

The medical science in India is largely a ‘brood parasite’ of the science of EU countries and USA.  Whatever is been theorized by those countries, our science would absorb and then perpetuate as its own. 

How a country like India can impose lockdown and social distancing and check the viral spread?  Have we achieved anything great in reducing the viral spread through nationwide lockdown?  Lockdown has made people economically also weak and not just immunologically. 

India was running after testing and quarantine than learning anything about the viral behaviour in the Indian context such as the actual viral load required for infection and dissemination.  We failed as a nation because we had contracted the entire responsibility to a particular class of people called ‘clinician’.  We made clinicians judge, jury and executioner’.

 

Epidemiologists, immunologists, virologists, microbiologists, biological scientists etc., were considered the least, it looks like.  Indian medicos does not have great scientific acumen and nor are they scientists like the medicos of EU countries or USA.  Whenever there was a starvation of new scientific information from western world, our medico’s scientists had to use fear mongering about the pandemic which many feels they have done it perfectly.  Today COVID 19 treatment has become millions dollar business. 

If we had created sufficient awareness among people and provided treatment to the needy without much disruption like nationwide lockdown, we would have been in a better position that what are today.  But we messed up everything by scouting people and fear mongering.  

Many people have lost their total trust in our medical service and science in India.  At least in future, our political establishment should consult our medical and scientific team for their suggestions but they should not be involved in making any policies for the nation and the final decision must be taken on consensus basis including the political considerations. 

We should realize the ultimate truth that we can only try our best to prevent the death but we cannot fight ‘YAMA’ the lord of death and that should not be our effort also.

The Ct value as revealed by the recent research studies have clearly shown that the virus is quite a weak pathogen and the most vulnerable may get infected if they contract the virus and some may die.  When compared to many other pathogens that already exist in India, the coronavirus appears not only weak but also meek to human being. 

The legitimacy given for the medical aggrandisement to happen in India has only killed people more than the novel coronavirus.   It is not just the virus or people with virus is going to infect, it is the susceptibility factor of the host that determines and therefore those who feels they are susceptible, let them stay inside forever and let others enjoy the freedom and democracy of India.