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The country’s Covid-19 curve, both in terms of numbers of fresh cases and deaths, is bending downwards and giving hopes of the pandemic’s second edition being finally brought under control after relentless efforts by the government and the healthcare workers. At this time, some rather intemperate comments by yoga guru Ramdev, who also runs a large ayurvedic medicine business, have created a controversy that would have been best avoided.

Ramdev’s comments
Ramdev’s comments on the unfortunate deaths of many allopathic doctors while fighting the Covid-19 menace and the efficacy of modern medicine, as against ayurveda that he propagates, has created a storm among the allopathic medicine community and has led to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) filing legal cases against him and calling for action against him.

Ramdev’s comments are not only questionable for its intent but also its timing which comes right in the middle of the country’s worst phase of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Many are seeing it as a crude attempt to make business gains at the most inopportune time and in a very inappropriate manner.

At this outset, let me make it clear that this is not a piece on the broader debate between allopathy and ayurveda, but a few observations on the main topic that Ramdev has raised – the fight against Covid-19.

Covid-19 battle
The fight against Covid-19 is not just India’s battle. It is war that the entire globe is fighting with varying degrees of success in their own battle theatres. However, even as the battle is intense in India, there are geographies which have seemingly come on top of the virus and managed to pin it down for the time being. The United States, which remains that most impacted by the pandemic, is easing curbs and allowing people who are vaccinated to move freely without masks. The United Kingdom (UK), which also saw a huge second wave and took stringent lockdown measures to tackle it, has substantially eased restrictions.

Both the United States and UK, like most other places, are fighting the war solely with allopathic medicine. China too, which is known for its traditional medicine, is relying on allopathy and modern-day vaccines to fight Covid-19. The bottomline is that ayurveda, or any traditional medicine, is dispensable in the fight against Covid-19, but not allopathy. Ayurveda can at best be supplementary ammunition, but not the main weapon.

Allopathic medicine is the only answer
Incidentally, there are fresh initiatives to find out the origins of the Covid-19 virus and to ascertain whether it is a natural virus or the product of a laboratory initiative in China, which could have been part of a planned biological warfare. Modern warfare requires the use of modern weapons to counter-attack. Hence, modern allopathic medicine is the only answer to combat any biological warfare. What the global allopathic industry and its ecosystem, including research laboratories and pharmaceutical companies, have achieved in combating the Covid-19 coronavirus is nothing short of a miracle. Several effective vaccines have come out in a short span of a few months and many across the world are benefiting by getting inoculated.

Though one must admit that there have been those within the healthcare industry and hospitals who have profiteered amid the calamity, it does not in any way dilute the efforts of medical practitioners, whether they are from allopathic, ayurvedic or any alternative medicine field. The frontline workers have worked tirelessly, round the clock, to extricate the nation out of this crisis.

The scale of the war against this unseen enemy is so large that it will take time for even the most advanced nations to declare a decisive victory. What is needed at this point is to strengthen the morale of Covid warriors in the healthcare sector – doctors, nurses and paramedics – and not weaken it through avoidable controversies. The fight against Covid-19 must be fought by all as one nation, and if ayurveda has good weapons in its armoury, it should be welcomed to lend its might.