Take the vaccine, urges CCMB director

With COVID-appropriate behaviour, cases can be brought down: Rakesh Mishra

With COVID-appropriate behaviour — three-layer face masks, social distancing, hand hygiene and vaccination — along with current restrictions on movement or gatherings, it is quite possible to bring down the caseload in the next two-three weeks. “But, we could also see a lot of damage during this time,” said CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) Director Rakesh Mishra. “We know how this virus spreads and how to stop this. With more vaccinations, we are hopeful of controlling the pandemic and perhaps, we can manage better and ensure there won’t be disastrous peaks like what we are experiencing now, in two months. The virus is smart and is certainly not going to vanish but could become like the common cold. We may be getting drugs to treat it sometime ahead,” he observed. Along with the ‘social vaccine’, the miracle of medical vaccines which have come out within a year should offer protection for several months and even up to a year, so, unless someone has been seriously ill in recent times, the jabs should be taken, he asserted.