Hello, Dr Shashank Joshi. It was indeed good to hear you in a one-to-one chat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Mann Ki Baat radio ...
Hello, Dr Shashank Joshi. It was indeed good to hear you in a one-to-one chat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Mann Ki Baat radio show on April 25. Such opportunities are rare. Your substantial involvement in Maharashtra’s Covid-19 task force and hard work are admirable. It was good to see you calling out the indiscriminate use of drugs like remedesevir. It was also heartening to hear you request Indians not to panic and hold out hope to millions of people who would have listened in.
As your interaction was drawing to a close you made some statements: “We have got the world’s best treatment available [in India]. India’s recovery rate is the highest [in the world]...If we compare with Europe and America, we observe that our patients are getting well by our treatment protocol.”
One would normally gloss over this as politeness, a natural deference to authority or even an attempt to promote positivity. However, this disturbed me. I think it is worth explaining publicly why it did so – even in these terrible times when we should be avoiding arguments. Because it is emblematic of a tendency that has partly contributed to the current situation and which needs urgent correction.
