Scripting a survival
Zee’s founding family plots a twist in the tale and stays in control
# One health: The Department of Biotechnology has launched a ‘One Health’ consortium that envisages carrying out surveillance of important bacterial, viral and parasitic infections of zoonotic as well as transboundary pathogens in the country. Noting that Covid-19 had showed the relevance of ‘One Health’ principles in the governance of infectious diseases, specially efforts to prevent and contain zoonotic diseases throughout the world, Swarup emphasised on a holistic approach to understand the health of human, animals and wildlife to minimise the damage caused by future pandemics, a report said.
# Resilience & fortitude: India has not only faced the Covid-19 crisis with great resilience and fortitude but has also played a major role and “walked the talk” on the global fight against it, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
# FDA to review the pill: The Food and Drug Administration will ask its outside experts to meet in late November to scrutinise Merck’s pill to treat Covid-19. The November 30 meeting means US regulators likely won’t issue a decision on the drug until December, signalling that the agency will conduct a detailed review of the experimental treatment’s safety and effectiveness.
# Variant uncertainty: The emergence of new coronavirus variants has increased uncertainty, posing downside risks to the green shoots of the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday while ruing that the crisis is exacerbating poverty and inequalities. “The emergence of virus variants has increased uncertainty and risks to the recovery are tilted to the downside,” IMF said in a communique after the conclusion of its annual meeting, attended among others by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
# Long Covid: More than half number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 experience post-Covid symptoms, known as long Covid, up to six months after recovering, according to a study. The researchers at Penn State College of Medicine in the US noted that governments, health care organisations and public health professionals should prepare for the large number of Covid-19 survivors who will need care for a variety of psychological and physical symptoms.