New Delhi: It must be the first time ever that television channels became one big giant health advisory, as the country, especially the capital, went into a tizzy over news of the latest confirmed cases of coronavirus.
From Baba Ramdev to India’s top doctors, eminent personalities suggested how to survive the spread of COVID-19 and lower the panic levels that now infect the atmosphere.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special social media Sunday dedicated to women on International Women’s Day also wormed its way into debates.
On Aaj Tak’s ‘Halla Bol’ with anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, a segment asked — ‘Naari shakti vs Waqt ki barbaadi’ (women power vs waste of time). Kashyap asked BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra what he made of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comments that PM Modi’s mysterious announcement about “thinking” of quitting social media was a waste of the nation’s time, while coronavirus was the challenge of the moment.
Patra responded coolly — Gandhi himself did nothing, he only screamed at people saying “tum karo na, tum karo na” (You do it). He then decided to please the anchor by saying that she was very well-known and congratulated her for a recent award, and added that as a successful woman who was followed by PM Modi on social media, would she not support Modi’s decision to give a platform to inspirational stories of women? “Why would Rahulji have an issue with this?”, he demanded. Why indeed?
ABP News, on the other hand, showed how seriously it was taking the news of the epidemic.
On ‘Samvidhan Ki Shapath’, anchor Shobna Yadav revealed their new ‘corona news lab’ — their regular newsroom set with a strange hologram of floating visuals. In this lab, she delivered some “raahat bhari khabar” (relief) about Shri Ram Millennium, the Noida school where the son of the Delhiite. who tested positive for coronavirus, studied. After thorough checks, she revealed there were apparently no signs of coronavirus in the school or its students, it had been shut down for the next few days to be sanitised.
Zee News was less relaxed. Host Sachin Arora questioned the PM’s message to the country to not worry, quite rightly pointing out that how not to worry when over 70 countries had been hit by the disease? Then a bare-chested Baba Ramdev came to Arora’s rescue, explaining that coronavirus was just like any other virus, but was stronger since it came from an animal. Pulling out some sticks, he announced that the “most effective” treatment of it was Giloy — the best antibacterial ingredient. Thank you Dr Ramdev.
Like a chef on a cookery show, he narrated a recipe — cut into small pieces, grind it, boil in a glass of water, take ¼ remainder, strain that and drink it. Ginger, tulsi and kaali mirch (black pepper) could be added for extra effectiveness, he prescribed. He concluded that just as this concoction saved us from swine flu and chikungunya, we can beat coronavirus with it too. Not sure if this logically follows, but that’s Ramdev for you.
NDTV 24×7’s ‘Left, Right Centre’, took a starkly different approach. Anchor Vishnu Som first tracked data analysing trends of how many people were being affected by the virus, and the rate at which people were recovering from it. Encouragingly, he said the more people improve faster, the more chances we were going to move out of this. He then introduced his “world-class set of panelists”, which included Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist WHO. According to her, most of the data Som referred to was from China. She reminded viewers that the virus was a mild infection for most patients – like a common cold-— and only a minority was affected seriously.
Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain pointed out that the man who contracted the disease from Italy was not screened because he came via Vienna and this was a problem. An Indian student studying in Iran’s Shiraz University of Medical Sciences also tuned into the show, and explained that neither Indian embassy nor her University had not been at all communicative but Indian students in Iran wished to be evacuated.
On India Today, anchor Rajdeep Sardesai spoke to the man of the hour — Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. “How prepared are we?,” asked Sardesai with some urgency in his voice, pointing out that only five instead of the recommended 29 testing labs existed. He added that reports suggested there were screening facilities at only a few airports. Harsh Vardhan waived off Sardesai’s claims and misinformation, and said that there were 15 labs, with another 19 being launched Wednesday.
He said that the screening process at airports since 17 January had already looked at over 5 lakh people. He proudly boasted that India had one of the “best integrated disease surveillance systems”.
We hope Arnab Goswami is not suffering from symptoms of anything, as he began his Republic TV prime time hour with a pleasant message of unity — “We must now come together as one people and be on our toes”. On his “panel of doctors”, Dr. Karan Madan from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, described coronavirus as having a mortality rate of 2.5-2.4 per cent. He said that “personal hygiene”, “hand hygiene” and “avoiding panic” were the way to go. Dr Vijay D’Silva, Director at Asian Heart Institute, urged that if anyone at all felt sick, they must just go get checked by a doctor.
“No point in getting seriously sick and only then going to a doctor,” he said.
ENT specialist Sameer Bharghav quelled Goswami’s doubts about people not getting checked for the fear of being quarantined and said that after all the media reports, there was indeed “mild panic” that had actually motivated people to come and get checked even for minor things they may not have come for before.
The health advisories continued on ‘The Newshour’ with Navika Kumar on Times Now. Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman Medanta and one of the most powerful names in the health sector, gave people lessons on the basic principles of hygiene — stay away from a coughing person, cough into a tissue and dispose tissue responsibly. He discussed how surfaces were the things to worry about, with some surfaces like plastic holding on to germs for longer, which is why constant hand-washing, use of hand sanitizers, and not touching one’s face were all crucial.
The way you presented the report, by calling Baba Ramdev a bare chested person mocking his attire and then called him Dr Ramdev, using a derogatory sentence before talking about Arnab Goswami shows that you are not a reporter but a bunch of idiot who have resources so they do whatever they want.