Week after AIIMS doctors, research group members slammed government in joint statement on COVID19, comes response from the ministry of health
In a strong statement, the government of India has rejected accusations that it did not take inputs from technical experts while drawing up its COVID 19 strategy.
“There are some reports in a section of the media expressing concern about the Government’s efforts towards containment and management of COVID-19 to have excluded the larger wisdom of technical experts. These apprehensions and allegations are unfounded and baseless. The Government is constantly in consultation with experts for technical and strategic inputs, scientific ideas and domain-specific guidance to address the COVID-19 pandemic. A National Task Force (NTF) for COVID-19 is constituted by Secretary DHR-cum-DG-ICMR with Member (Health) NITI Aayog as Chairperson and Secretary (DoHFW) and Secretary (DHR) as Co-Chairs. The NTF comprises of 21 members including technical/domain experts from the government and outside the government. Predominant expertise in the Task Force is from public health and/or epidemiology. Given the complexity and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has experts from medicine, virology, pharmacology and programme implementation domains, as well,” reads the statement.
“The people, the WHO and the global health community have appreciated India’s proactive and pre- emptive approach to COVID-19. There was all round consensus on the lockdown among all state governments”
Last week a joint statement by the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) & Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE) had said that the government did not consult “epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modelers”. Among the signatories in the statement were Dr. Shashi Kant, Professor & Head, Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr. D.C.S. Reddy, Former Professor & Head, Community Medicine, BHU, both members of an ICMR research group on epidemiology and surveillance for COVID19. That joint statement also said that it is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country. The government has consistently denied community transmission.
“A section of the media is also reporting on the decisions regarding India’s approach to the pandemic. The decision on lockdown was taken in the background of rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases. The doubling rate of cases had dropped to a low level pointing toward a dangerous trajectory of high case load and high mortality, as experienced by many western countries. The possibility that our health systems could soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, seemed to be real. Policies and strategies need to be calibrated to keep pace with the rapidly evolving situation nation is faced with. This virus is a new agent, not everything is known about it as yet. Government is fine-tuning the strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground,” added the Union health ministry in its statement issued on Sunday.
It added that the different stages of epidemic demand different response. “In fact,
the nuanced, step-wise response is known to be a positive characteristic of a resilient health system. The people, the WHO and the global health community have appreciated India’s proactive and pre- emptive approach to COVID-19. There was all round consensus on the lockdown among all state governments,” the government said.