In the Mumbai edition of TOI today, there is an article on Dharavi achieving herd immunity.
Population, 1 million, in three square kilometres. Almost everyone has been exposed to the virus. Very very very few have died. The article of course does not report that. My guess is ( based on extrapolation of another report on this a couple of months back) that it is less than five hundred deaths. Which is as much as any other ailment. Finally, people have to die of something.
The way to develop antibodies to any virus is to get the virus, or to get the vaccine.
The conclusion should be obvious. At least to me they appear obvious.
The virus is not deadly. There are news articles highlighting cases with horrible outcomes, which distort the picture in our minds. If you highlight all road accident cases which result in being wheelchair bound for life, you will stop driving, but what is the probability?
Indians are more immune. In my view, this is due to the fact that we eat fresh food most of the time, and the fact that we are exposed to all kinds of viruses all the time. The latter makes slum dwellers more immune. It is also but common sense that wearing masks and isolating oneself is going to reduce your exposure to all kinds of viruses, and thus your overall immunity.
By definition, any allopathic drugs are harmful, vaccines more so. So vaccines are justified only for extreme ailments like small pox or polio. This point can be debated, as to where to draw the line, but it is definitely not wise to take vaccines for Flu annually. That will end up reducing your overall immunity. But that is exactly where we are heading.
All viruses mutate. The body is used to handling this over millions of years of evolution. But this same argument is being used to say that one needs to take annual covid shots, and, why am I not surprised, bundled with your annual flu shots.
So we will do that, and we are getting more and more into takeaways and processed foods, and soon we will lose our immunity. Then we will be scared of every floating germ out there, and wrap ourselves in bubbles.
While the people in slums will thrive!