Covid appropriate behavior and need to get vaccinated must to avoid third wave: Randeep Guleria

Chandigarh: The Department of Microbiology, Panjab University, Chandigarh organized a webinar on the theme “Promotion of Scientific Temper among People of India”, today, to spread awareness amongst general public about the current pandemic situation. 

Prof. Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi spoke on the topic “ What the pandemic has taught us and where do we go from here?” Dr. Guleria started his talk by explaining the factors which were responsible for an increase in the number of pandemics in the 21st century. He discussed about the one health concept and emphasized that there is a need to look at holistic health i.e. the health of animals, plants and human together rather than humans alone in order to avoid any future pandemics. 

Further in his talk, Dr. Guleria discussed about the reasons behind the emergence of devastating second wave and that there is an urgent requirement to invest in public health services. He emphasized that COVID-19 appropriate behavior i.e. wearing of masks, regular washing of hands up gradation of vaccination drive can to a large extent help in avoiding the speculated third wave of the infection. 

He also discussed about the different vaccines available in the country, their efficacy, the development of new vaccines and the major problems associated with vaccines such as the vaccine hesitancy and their equitable distribution. Dr. Guleria concluded his talk by mentioning that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over nor it is going to end very soon. The people need to adhere to COVID appropriate behavior and need to get vaccinated in order to avoid the third wave. 

Dr. Deepak K. Rahi, Chairman, gave a brief overview of the program and briefly discussed how during this past year, the COVID-19 pandemic had turned our lives upside down and has changed not just the way we live and work but also how we think and behave.

This was followed by a brief note by Prof. Prince Sharma, Former Dean Science and the organizing secretary of the webinar who discussed about the current pandemic situation and also introduced the guest speaker to the audience. 

The webinar was coordinated by Mr. Khem Raj Thakur, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology.

The talk was followed by an interactive session where in the queries put forward by the audience were answered by Dr. Guleria. The webinar ended with a vote of thanks by Prof. Prince Sharma.