The longevity of the vaccine and the period for which the immunity is bestowed is NOT yet known!

By Dr Joe D’Souza

WE live in a country full of rituals and religiosity and are basically far from scientific curiosity and rational objectivity. Many amongst us believe drinking cow’s urine cures 43 diseases and imparts immunity. Still others take a dip into river Ganges thinking it cures us of all our morbidity, although it is one of the most polluted rivers of India. Again we are confident that going to church or mosques and partaking in ritualism would protect us from evil or harm!
Sadly we never ever think about the mask we wear on our face, which is often moist and dirty as bacteria causes bio fouling of these so called preventive masks against microorganisms. Actually, viruses are only 90 nanometers in size and the pores of these masks are above 900 nano meters, freely allowing viruses move in and out of the mask! Moreover, in tropical Goa with over 90% humidity, masks hinder oxygen supply which is harmful for our immunity.
It is over a year that Goa in particular and India in general is battling hard to wipe off the covid-19 from the national scenario. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and very many scientists and doctors, especially those medical practitioners, were either professing social distancing, quarantining or masking the face, to avoid or evade the covid-19 virus.
Being a deeply religious country our citizenry and the government enforced dubious guidelines as a matter of scientific ritual. These standard operating procedures were thrust upon us in sequential manner over the year, which made the common man weary, tired and psychologically distressed. The health, both mental as well as physical, of society started deteriorating. We forgot the mantra that a healthy mind grooms a healthy body.
With stress increasing, our immune system started deteriorating. Due to masks, dirty with prolonged use, it led to our aviola sacs collapsing and resulting in lower supply of oxygen exchange due to severe weakening of our body’s defense mechanisms. With compromised immunogenic responses, many Indians in particular suffered secondary infections, which aggravated nasophaegal infections during hospitalization.
We must understand the basics of both virology and immunology to appreciate both pathogenesis and cure of all infections and contagious diseases. Being in the field of microbiology for over 50 years and going steady at 75 years, I must assert that microorganism, including viruses, have had over 300 to 800 million years of evolutionary history. Both the RNA and DNA viruses have already been integrated into our human genome as transposons or palindromic sequences.
Even mitochondria in the human body which is an organelle that produced energy in the form of adenosine tri phosphate (ATP) is a bacterium integrated into our body during our evolutionary history of 200 thousand years. The reason, why I am furnishing these details is to enlighten my readers that we could never ever succeed in wiping viruses off the face of the earth. The Modi mantra of covid-19 Mahabharata of 21 days is just a superb cock and bull jhumla. I strongly advocate that we must learn to live and let live genetic biodiversity.
For the last one year I have insisted that the best approach to remain free of diseases is by directly confronting the pathogen in sub-optimal conditions and doses often found in the environment, and thus generating innate or acquired immunity. Our body has cytokines, inteferons, dendrite cells, natural killer cells, white blood cells in the form of T and B cells, interleukins and various hormonal secretions from our organs, including lungs, be it in the form of mucus or other fluids. Yet we hide ourselves and pray to supernatural powers out of fright – when all we need to do is to boost our immunogenic responses – as attack is the best form of defense.
Medical practitioners, randomly giving drugs or antibiotics to patient without doing antibiotic sensitivity bio assays is the major cause of drug resistance. It is a major challenge for doctors today who randomly prescribe drugs without conducting bioassays and sensitivity tests.
Today, as we are embarking on the covid-19 vaccination program in two phases using Pfizer’s Covishield and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech Ltd, we have strong proof and evidence that there are hundreds of mutants and variants of covid-19 in different parts of India, and hence a big question arises.
Before administration of vaccines have we done any screening or determination by skin tests? This is to prevent hypersensitivity, allergies or anaphylactic shocks because of the vaccinations. Those taking vaccines have not done any baseline study of serological tests to determine the levels of antibodies produced by the vaccinated person. By determining the amount of antibodies produced before vaccination, after receiving the first dose and the number of antibodies after receiving the second booster we would know the efficacy of the vaccine.

TRIAL RUNS?
We assume that the results in the trial runs and now administered vaccine program is or must be the same. This is a wrong assumption. The vaccine often degenerates on storage, transportation and administration, and reactions vary from person to person. The longevity of the vaccine and the period for which the immunity is bestowed is NOT yet known. The mutants could well be able to keep us all napping and generate secondary infections as viruses are able to play hide and seek with our defense systems.
I always believe that eternal vigilance is the price we have to pay for freedom from diseases. Patanjali of Baba Ramdev with the help of the Modi government is promoting Coronil immunity boosters, reportedly it enjoys a Rs450 crore worth of sales in the international market! I have always reiterated many times that Indians by and large are more resistant and stable to various infectious diseases. Not just that our immunogenicity is dynamic and active as we freely exposed to germs due to our dubious hygiene and sanitary practices!
However, our herbs, spices, essential oils, aromatic incenses, tropical fruit and vegetables, roots and sunlight bestow upon us copious amounts of essential nutrients, be it vitamins, proteins, minerals or carbohydrates. Since diet, sunlight and the environment is our core competence we must walk freely on our beaches, open parks, hills, without following Western lifestyles blindly. We must be strong, healthy and fit. Let our body fifth a or paly with the viruses just as I see my cat play with the mice. Just as a good batsman knows to face bouncers.
Our body must be trained to face real bouncing viruses and develop innate herd immunity. The most important scientific principle that we particularly as Goans must understand and adopt, is to respect mother nature and humbly enjoy the bounties we have received to date. A clean and green Goa free of dust pollutants, mining, vehicular traffic or industrial chimney stacks will afford lower stress and strain on our immunogenic system, of our respiratory tract. Adulterated food, contaminated fruit and vegetables, concrete jungles in low lying areas, formalin in fish or sewage in our rivers, or industrial effluents of hazardous chemicals, will destroy our cellular immunogenic responses.
Senseless coal imports and mindless double tracking will destroy lives of Goans for posterity, especially of those living close by in the vicinity. Development must essentially be of mind and body. Electricity generating Tamnar project would destroy us by the destruction of our biodiversity with hazardous radiation as man, animal and environment in Goa is a well-knit one.
Mother Nature either blesses or curses us for our deeds. There is no forgiveness. We must fight to save ourselves or else the Hum Do along with Hamare Do will spell out doom for Goa for eternity and put the Indian nation in peril!