The cowboy President!
The race for the magic vaccine against COVID is on by pharmaceutical giants. It will earn revenues of billions of dollars.
In the meanwhile, the world is busy experimenting on all available concoctions of drugs. Standing out and tall among them is a combination of Azithromycin and Hydroxychloroquine. Besides China, India is one of the largest manufacturers of the two drugs. India, to ensure local needs had earlier announced a ban on the exports of these two drugs.
The efficacy of the two drugs against the virus effects are not validated by either the WHO or any other nation. Doctors in France have warned against such indiscriminate usage of any drug without proper trials, which could lead to severe complications.
The US President, ostensibly convinced that Hydroxychloroquine is the wonder drug and the silver-bullet to halt the virus, went on air announcing it, leading to a worldwide stockpile of the same. Two days ago, Trump, peeved at the Indian ban on the exports of the drug urged India to allow exports of Hydroxychloroquine to the USA. He did not stop at that, he furthered, ‘or else… we shall retaliate.’
What an obnoxious statement from the president of the USA! It is not a time for gun-slinging-cowboy roles. There is something called soft diplomacy. He could have picked up the telephone and called his friend Modi, asking for help, which may not have been declined. By grossly delaying the preparations for an impending disaster, the US has, as I write this more than 400000 infections and 12854 deaths. The death toll is higher than the combined death figures of US army-men who had fought the last six wars.
India meekly reopened the exports of the drugs yesterday, heeding to the pressures. I guess India has sufficient stocks to meet its contingency if needed. Today, the POTUS threatened to pull the plug of funding the WHO, which he claimed has become China-centric. Admittedly, this is not the time for such theatrics, where the world must remain united and find a way to stop the spread of the virus.
Deaths and newer cases in the meanwhile have stopped in China, the origin of the virus. The transport, rail, road and flights have resumed in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus. The integrity of the figures dished out by the Chines could be of doubt. I wish Trump arm-twisted Xi too to learn the dark secrets of the Wuhan Virus research Centre, the suppression of the virus spread for weeks, their mortality and recovery figures, and above all the magic-potion they have against the virus.
India was softer for bullying.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix