“Two veteran infectious diseases experts — Jayaprakash Muliyal and T. Jacob John (both of the Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore) who were at the forefront of the leprosy eradication and pulse polio immunisation programmes, respectively — feel it’s time to end the lockdown, with one of them describing a long-term shutdown as akin to ‘burning the house to kill a rat’.
Muliyal preferred cultivating herd immunity to a lock-down, while Jacob John supported a lock-down of no more than 2 weeks (March 24 until April 6-7). For him, a lock-down is less about containing the virus than it is about buying time to prepare, and, as he cogently points out, if one cannot prepare in 2 weeks, one is unlikely to prepare in 4.
Two other experts, M. Sivakami, chairman of the Center for Health and Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and Abdul Ghafar, an Apollo consultant in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology advocated a lock-down only until May 1 (a total of 5 weeks) and until April 15 respectively (a total of 3 weeks).
So, 4 of the most prominent infectious diseases experts, representing private hospitals geared to research, teaching, and mission/social service (CMC), research institutions (Tata), and private urban hospital chains (Apollo), supported 0, 2, 3, and 5 weeks of lock-down, at the most. That means, only the Tata Institute consultant advocated extending the March 24 lock-down at all, and then only by 2 weeks.
Notably, the Tata Institute is fully funded by the University Grants Commission of the Indian Government, possibly suggesting a desire to toe the government line.
The private sector recommendations conflict directly with those of the government’s panel of medical experts who wanted to extend the 21-day lock-down. Two who spoke to the press only on the condition of anonymity wanted the extension to mitigate the unforeseen migrant exodus. One wanted a 1-week extension, but the other wanted a full 2-month lock-down, that is, a 39-day (4 1/2 week) extension.