Omicron among fastest transmissible viruses known to mankind: Maha Covid Task Force member

Frontline COVID warrior, Dr Rahul Pandit says it is action caution, but sees a ray of light in fight

There is a Omicron tsunami at our doorstep: how much do we know about it? Mirror Wisdom Reflected, a YouTube channel by Dr Himanshu Mehta, recently showcased an extensive session with Dr Rahul Pandit, Director Intensive Care, Fortis Mumbai, member of the National Task Force and the Maharashtra Task Force for COVID-19, on Omicron, the virus and vaccines.

Host speak

At the outset, Dr Mehta the host stated, “Dr Pandit is the man in action, the ICU man, saving patients left, right and centre. When COVID started, nobody knew what this enemy was and what to do. Modern medicine being what it is, it learnt from previous mistakes. We also did not stay put. Vaccines are a great surge in human history. People questioned how could vaccines be made so quickly? When the President of the United States opens his purse and the best of the human brains get together, they come out with something unique. That is the leap of faith we have in mankind.”

Test best

Dr Rahul Pandit began, “Omicron is essentially one of the fastest transmissible viruses known to mankind, coming close in transmissibility to the measles virus. Today, people are testing themselves at home and isolating. I do not know how many of them are reporting the test results on the app, like they are supposed to do. They could be adhering even more to the right path  if they did so. In the Delta wave, people were not testing enough. Only when they deteriorated and with very low levels of oxygen, they would come in to the hospitals.”

Sheer size

Talking peaks and valleys, Dr Pandit said, “We are in the ascendant when it comes to cases. Our one country is like an amalgamation of many small countries. South Africa’s population is like that of Karnataka. For case numbers each state will have a peak, that will gradually come down. We will not see a wave like with the Delta variant that continued for three long months with very significant hospitalisations.” The doc surmised that hopefully, each place within India will peak at a different time, “giving healthcare infrastructure enough breathing space.”

He illustrated through examples about Fortis Hospital (Mulund) and its Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Said Dr Pandit, “In the Delta wave out of 170 patients approximately, we would have 95 per cent on oxygen. Today, two are on ventilator needing high oxygen. The others are complex medical patients. It is like managing a complex medical ward. I have patients who had stroke, detected with COVID, I have a liver trauma patient, who is COVID positive… such a high-test positivity rate shows that Incidental COVID is very high.”

The warning

The speaker added as his enlightening show continued, “As of now, barring a few top private hospitals where people tend to flock, ICU beds are by ‘n’ large, still empty. We may term Omicron as mild, but there will be a small percentage of patients who may still require oxygen. When we are seeing patients at 1,00,000 cases per day in the country and out of that if 1 per cent may need oxygen, it will still be a very high number.” He used his hands to demonstrate with finality, “We need to be very clear that a small per cent of a big number is still a big number.”

Vaccine wise

Dr Mehta who was taking questions from an online audience, asked Dr Pandit about vaccines. The task force member explained, “Vaccines were never meant to be given to ‘avoid’ the infection. That is exactly what scientists told us. They said that with vaccines the severity is milder and most vaccinated may not land up in the hospital. It is an RNA-based virus. Coronaviruses are very difficult to eradicate. We will have to learn to live with the virus. A nasal vaccine that is on the anvil may give us a mucosal immunity, by barring the virus entry through the nose, and that may give us something like sterilization. That is the ray of light. One day this virus may just be another flu kind of virus, like H1N1, and now we have only sporadic cases of it.”
The doc also advocated the booster dose, saying the eligible should definitely go ahead and take the shot, even as Dr Mehta rounded off about his celebrated guest, “Dr Pandit was the man in the forefront in a PPE suit, who himself went through COVID in May 2020, when it was still an unknown and because of that, a very dangerous adversary.”

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