Oommen C. Kurian Profile picture
Oct 1, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
#AntigenTests #Masks #Lockdown
India now has the highest daily recorded Covid19 new cases and deaths in the world, with cases and deaths plateauing.

There are many who think India bungled its Covid19 response badly. Here’s a #thread examining the claim. 1/n @orfonline
Let’s start with the #lockdown.

It’s now become fashionable to act as if the early & decisive lockdown was an unmitigated disaster. However, the aim of the lockdown was to hit a pause button in a time of almost complete uncertainty. It helped the health system prepare well. 2/n
It can be debated how it was implemented, whether we dragged on for too long, etc. But at that point in time,the lockdown, a blunt instrument was all we had to keep damage low & to buy time. Now, armed with low mortality stats, we cannot complain it didnt eradicate the virus. 3/n
#RapidTests
Indian experts have often been dismissive of Rapid Antigen Tests(RATs) when the government decided to use them along with RT-PCR tests, citing false negatives. Now, the WHO itself has started promoting RATs world over, implicitly endorsing India’s early decision. 4/n
#Masks
Till June, the WHO wasn’t sure about medical evidence to support the public wearing a mask. However, large parts of India, a country with a population of 1.3 billion people, made face masks compulsory way back in April. Countries like UK made masks mandatory in July. 5/n
India is a complex country & certainly a big challenge for those handling a pandemic. Given the systemic weaknesses, Indian states and the Centre are doing an extremely challenging job, keeping the death rates low and declining, despite the surging numbers. We haven’t failed. n/n

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More from @oommen

Apr 14, 2021
#Thread

Recommendations:

1. Aggressive coverage of priority population groups, followed by phased opening up to younger populations based on supplies.

2. Include all adults, including those below 45, with severe co-morbidities into the priority population group.
3.Urgently approve & deploy a broader mix of vaccines.

4. Ramp up manufacturing capacity.

5. Address vaccine hesitancy.

6. Monitor, collate, and transparently report on Adverse Events Following Inoculation (AEFIs).

7. Public advocacy campaign on mask wearing & safe behaviour
8. Bans on mass gatherings and venues for large
congregations.

9. Community led, decentralized tracing, testing,
and isolating and community monitoring.

10. Scaling up RT-PCR testing, with data on
vaccinations.

11. International travel: (7-day institutional quarantine)
Read 5 tweets
Mar 31, 2021
A lot being written about Brazilian regulator "rejecting" Covaxin. I'll wait for more information to emerge to ensure larger pharma interests are not in play.

3 factors:

1) WHO's BB inspection didnt find anything.
2) Lower half of the map
3) Read paper(gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/…)
1: WHO's inspection report of @BharatBiotech's facilities (who.int/immunization_s…) . They seemed happy. Now, unless things degraded fast, I'm surprised why Brazilian team would find anything fishy. ImageImage
Brazil was the ONLY prominent developing country opposed to India and South Africa's joint proposal to the WTO against vaccine monopolies. The strange map says it all. Image
Read 4 tweets
Aug 18, 2020
#Thread

I remember answering long questions from the author of this piece. Guess they didn't find my inputs on the invisible (& imaginary for now)catastrophe alarmist enough.

India's invisible catastrophe: fears over spread of Covid-19 into rural areas theguardian.com/global-develop…
Image
Image
Read 6 tweets
Aug 17, 2020
The official response from The Hindu on #KuchBhiResearch is based on a strawman argument. It asserts that the flawed method was called "fudging of data". NO.
The "experts" systematically used wrong data to overestimate multiplication factor and published wrong numbers.@orfonline
"One can differ with the writers’ methodology & their estimate, which is based on a raw factor of multiplication and ...... but that does not diminish their plea for a robust health data system."
Talk about how charlatans hijack a genuine demand from researchers for data release.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 14, 2020
#Thread #UHC #AyushmanBharat

As the #DigitalHealthMission gets launched tomorrow, a thread of some of my work for ORF on India's health information ecosystem.

Tracking health and nutrition targets: Four recommendations for India orfonline.org/research/track… via @orfonline
Overcoming data challenges in tracking India’s health and nutrition targets orfonline.org/research/overc… via @orfonline
Can a data revolution help India achieve its health goals? orfonline.org/research/can-a… via @orfonline
Read 10 tweets
Jul 25, 2020
#Thread

I was recently asked what has #COVID19 taught us about how much attention to pay to our public- funded healthcare system. Here is my answer:
I was recently asked whether poor human resource management practices show that health workers are neglected in India's healthcare system. Here is my answer:

I was recently asked how #COVID19 burdened further an already burdened healthcare system in India. Here is my answer:

Read 4 tweets

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