Corona - No panic, no superstition - Be responsible

While the whole world is gripped by the Corona fear, I have in front of me, four news items of harmful ignorance and superstition.  Well, there could be hundred such cases, and these four represent them:

1. Four youth who had recently traveled from Dubai to India have refused to go through Corona tests for religious reasons.
2. Some "Gaumootra Party" it seems - It seems a lot of people hailing from even far off places have participated in the 'party' organized by some radical cow-urine promoting organization, and found their mental elation by drinking mugs of Gaumootra, 'worshiping' Corona Virus , and shouting slogans "Corona, saanth ho jao"  Some of the organizers claim that Gaumootra is a sure-shot anecdote for Corona Virus; and they even assure a guaranteed remedy for whoever attacked by the virus.
3. A Mullah from Iran has 'discovered' that some essential oils applied up the anus will eliminate Corona, and has urged the people to do so
4. A doctor who firmly believes in, and only in, protests, has called upon the people to come out in torrents and protest against the government's decision to close the schools, colleges, functions etc in the wake of Corona threat

Well, we saw the four faces of ignorance. While both those who are for and who are against those 'schools' have shared these news items and and are enjoying admiring/trolling the same, our TRP-hungry, disaster-desparate TV channels are busy revving up deathly music, terming Corona as "the agent of death", "the death knell" etc, even as the virus has just made its entry into India and has not even killed ten people.  And the government is just coughing into the ears of everybody who try to make phone call, and has been successful creating a huge aversion about the Corona message, rather than the corona itself.  Suppose you want to call somebody urgently, but they are not picking up the call.  If you make ten failed call, you will hear this half a minute coughing sermon every time, making it around 10 minutes of wasted time.  How can anybody remain cool and composed with this?

And even amidst this chaos, hundreds of scientists across the country and across the world, are burning the mid-night oil in order to find an anecdote for the virus; thousands of doctors, and nurses are risking their lives attending the patients; scores of government personnel and health workers are struggling in airports and public places to bring about/implement suitable administrative measures contain the spread. 

Should the efforts of all these saviours not go waste, it is our sole responsibility to cooperate with them by showing a little more maturity, by avoiding all this chaos.  Cracking jokes about CoronaVirus is one thing, spreading rumors and superstition in another.  The first one keeps the mind light and healthy, but the second one will corrupt the mind and lead to disastrous behavior.

It's the right time to stay home and spend some quality time with the family, avoiding going out, especially the areas suspected with infection.  Home-entertainment and home-food can at least strengthen the family bond to an extent.  Well, if somebody is forced to go to work, you can't help - just wear a mask and exercise due care and caution.  Let's not flock the medical shops for masks.  It is not difficult to make a mask at home with clean and sterilized cloth.  After all, the mask will not protect you from corona to a great extent.  When somebody coughs and sneezes the droplets will get ejected from the nose/mouth and can travel wide and far.  Mask contains that force of ejection and to that extent it slows down the spread.  Likewise, it may (not stop but) restrict a free entry into your nose/mouth for the virus already in the air.  To this extent the mask will slow down the spread.

Expert help is of utmost importance, avoid self medication.  Yes, it is a traditionally known fact that medicinal things like tulsi (basil), ginger, pepper, garlic, guduchi/amritavalli (tinospora cordifolia), neem, papaya leaves do strengthen the body immunity in general, and the strengthened immunity may enhance your ability to fight Corona, to some extent.  But this is just a general guess, no lab-tests have till now confirmed that these are effective in fighting the Virus.  Of course, we won't lose anything by using these herbs/medicines from the point of view of general immunity - why, for many ailments the traditional household medicine have proved to be a sure-shot anecdote.  So there is no harm in using this but let there not be a false sense of safety, that we are safe from Corona just because we are using this.  Let's not neglect the timely diagnosis and treatment protocols.

There is an elaborate protocol already published by the government and other concerned organizations, to be followed in order to avoid/manage the infection.  It is enough if we follow them scrupulously.  DO NOT trust any 'solutions' coming from unauthorized sources.  Please remember, those who advise drinking cow-urine or applying some oil into the anus are neither doctors nor even ayurvedic/Unani experts.  Yes, there is a traditional belief that the 'gaumootra and gaumaya' (cow urine and dung) act as a disinfectant, but they are all for for general use, not for a bodily use.  Even the religious rituals like 'panchagavya' prescribe just a drop or two of gaumootra - I have never ever come across any scriptural/medical prescription prescribing to drink mugs of cow-urine.  Even if some scripture says that, it can not be trusted unless proven by lab-tests (While people dole out loads of unsolicited pseudo scientific explanation for the purly belief-based rituals like shikha (tuft) and the yajnopaveeta (sacred thread), namaskara (prostration) etc, it fails me to understand they expect you to 'trust' cow-urine as a medicine and drink mugs of it). As long as they are not inhuman, the religious beliefs and practices are always respectable, but they must remain in the level of beliefs (It is even my belief that certain beliefs work miracles sometimes).  But it is important that the others should not be jeopardized by your belief.  It's okay if you offer some sayings against Corona Virus to Tirupati Balaji, make some offerings to a local demigod, or distribute sugar in a dargah, or offer prayers in a church.  That is your belief, and we respect it, and wish you the best.  But if you say you won't do anything other than this, then, well, it is your fate - remain locked indoors as long as your beliefs protect you - don't come out and spread the fruits of your 'beliefs' to the others.  If you feel you are absolutely safe from Corona just because you have drunk a liter of gaumutra, or you have applied some special oil up the anus, then take our bow, and don't come out of your cage at all  🙏🙏🙏

[Click here for the Kannada version of this article]