Highlights:
- Flogging a dead horse – Covid in the news again
- Ebola shows downward trend in DRC? SII ships 4,000 vax doses to Oxdford for trial
- Late meals lead to obesity and poor health
Website: https://uho.org.in
By Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Chairperson of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO)
Flogging a dead horse – Covid in the news again
Covid-19 is in the news again. ETHealthworld reported 2 deaths from Covid and 4 positive cases in the Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa District. The Indian Express has confirmed 2 deaths and 8 cases raising concerns. The first patient was a 60 year old man who had extensive comorbidities in the form of diabetes and kidney disease. A post-mortem RT-PCR test confirmed Covdid-19.
The second patient died on July 7. He was a 46 year old man who had severe breathlessness and cough and extensive lung damage. This was assumed to be due to Covid-19.
While these are sporadic cases and cause of death cannot be directly attributed to Covid-19 at least in the first case who had severe co-morbidities, while the second death can be due to any other lung conditions which are prevalent in the country such as TB or pneumoconiosis, speculations are rife that the current “spike” may be due to an aggressive mutant of the Omicron subvariant. The health secretary of the state said that surveillance and contact tracing measures are in place.
UHO considers this as an overreaction and too much attention is given to one mild infection which may lead to neglect of other more serious infections and conditions. Surveillance and contact tracing are resource intensive and for an mild infection like the coronavirus which has become endemic since long there is bound to be many asymptomatic cases in the community. Increased testing will give rise to more “cases” by picking up these asymptomatic cases (a new term invented during the last pandemic), and give rise to public panic. Stakeholders with various conflicts of interest will try flogging the dead horse of Covid-19 for profiteering.
The chapter of Covid-19 should be closed once and for all. Our country has enough and more serious public health problems.
Ebola shows downward trend in DRC? SII ships 4,000 vax doses to Oxdford for trial.
To support the rapid launch of the study and progression of the vaccine candidate into clinical evaluation, Serum Institute of India (SII) has manufactured and stockpiled approximately 620,000 doses of the ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine candidate in two weeks for potential future use and has supplied 4,000 investigational doses for this Phase I trial.
This work is supported by funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), to the University of Oxford and SII, as part of a US$8.6 million programme to advance the development of Bundibugyo vaccines. The programme builds on CEPI’s strategic partnership with the University of Oxford and SII’s participation in CEPI’s Vaccine Manufacturing Facility Network.
Subject to regulatory approval, preparations are also underway for further clinical studies with overseas partners, including those at the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit.
The ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of and uses the same viral vector platform as the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which is estimated to have saved over six million lives during its first year of use.
It will be recalled that this platform was used to develop the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine against Covid-19. The vaccine had to be ultimately withdrawn because of serious adverse effects including clotting of blood leading to neurological and cardiovascular disorders.
UHO expresses concerns that the same failed technology is used to develop a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola in DRC Congo. In poor countries like DRC Congo with limited public health infrastructure serious side effects would go unnoticed.
It would be also of interest that as reported by UHO in an earlier session, the cases of Ebola are showing a downward trend in DRC Congo as plotted from available data which are likely to be unreliable. The WHO and CDC maintains that the outbreak is escalating.
Chasing different strains of mutating viruses like the Ebola is like chasing a deer in the forest. By the time the vaccine is ready for mass rollout and is “mandated” on an unsuspecting population, the strain would have changed, partly due to vaccine pressure and again there would be a race for a newer vaccines. Instead of going for piecemeal solutions like vaccines for each separate infection, the huge investments of millions of dollar can be diverted to improve the public health infrastructure, hospitals, education of the population about universal precautions including the hazards of traditional funeral rituals involving close contact with the dead body of Ebola patients with high viral loads by the mourners. Addressing all these factors will bring down the cases of Ebola in DRC Congo faster than mass vaccination. As shown in the figure below cases of Ebola are already showing a drown ward trend. If any vaccine is introduced now, the fall may be wrongly attributed to the vaccine rather than the usual behavior of all viral infections in a community.
Footnote: Despite all the panic about Ebola and the prediction of doomsday, the DRC Congo football team reached the top 16 in the current Football World Cup.
Late meals lead to obesity and poor health.
A recent study published on 07 July 2026, found that not only the type of food but the time of eating affects our health.
The study was undertaken among 287 healthy non-pregnant women to ascertain the effect of meal timings on body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity.
The researchers found that women who had late meals in the evening had greater obesity profiles, less favourable metabolic biomarker profiles, and lower micronutrient intake. They also had poorer lipid profile and glucose tolerance.
The authors conclude that a variety of factors are crucial for health outcomes. It appears that not only what and when we eat, but also when we sleep relative to the external day-night cycle and how these lifestyle factors align with metabolic health outcomes are important. Therefore, there is a need to explore further the link between “chrono-nutrition” and obesity outcomes, particularly in ethnically diverse populations, to better distinguish the independent effects that chronotype may have and to tailor personalized health interventions in the future.
We think our country, with its ethnic and cultural diversity offers good opportunities to take such studies further. Many communities in India finish their last meal before sunset and we can compare their health status with other groups who are late night revellers, particularly the younger generation. The old wisdom “early to rise and early to bed” may have a scientific basis after all.
The weekly newsletters bring the updates on the science, battered and bruised during the pandemic, legal updates and impact of activism for a just society, across the world. These are small steps to promote Transparency, Empowerment and Accountability – the ethos of the UHO.
Announcement: Membership & endorsements to the UHO invited: https://uho.org.in/member.php
Also Read:
Universal Health Organisation (UHO) Weekly Newsletter – 10 JULY 2026