The idea that the novel coronavirus has different strains – some more lethal than the others – took wings in the Indian imagination quite e...
The idea that the novel coronavirus has different strains – some more lethal than the others – took wings in the Indian imagination quite early on in the pandemic. First, it was a Bharatiya Janata Party politician who quoted his “scientist friend” quoting another unnamed “US researcher” that the virus “strain in India is a less virulent mutation”. Then, a mainstream daily said India may have got a “lucky break” from the virus after a gastroenterologist they interviewed said that the “coronavirus in India is different from that found in other countries” and less dangerous.
But as it turned out that India was not quite having a lucky break as predicted, and people were getting infected and dying, more so in some states than others, a new strain theory emerged. This one was more specific. This time, it came from the Gujarat government who claimed that the high mortality rate in the state was a result of it being affected by the “virulent L-strain” of the virus. States like Kerala, which had managed to keep deaths low and the spread somewhat limited (at that point), were affected by a milder “S-strain” of the virus, Gujarat’s top health official said on video.
The implication was this: it was for reasons beyond the...
