COVID-19 crisis Rahul Gandhi speaks to experts in healthcare social sciences

Team Udayavani, May 27, 2020, 8:54 AM IST

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New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, May 26 spoke to public health professional Ashish Jha and Swedish epidemiologist Johan Giesecke, as part of his ongoing series of dialogues with globally recognized experts in economics, social sciences, healthcare on tackling the COVID-19 crisis.

While Jha exuded confidence that a vaccine will be available in a year’s time, Prof Giesecke said India should practice a lockdown that is as ‘soft’ as possible, as a severe lockdown will ruin its economy very quickly.

“When the economy is opened up after lockdown, you have to create confidence among people,” Harvard health expert Ashish Jha told Gandhi.

Jha is a professor of Global Health at TH Chan School of Public Health and Director, Harvard Global Health Institute.

He said that coronavirus is a ’12-18 months’ problem and the world is not going to be free of this till 2021.
The expert also called for the need for an aggressive testing strategy for high-risk areas.

Gandhi, while interacting with the experts, said life is going to change post-COVID-19.

“If 9/11 was a new chapter, this will be a new book,” he remarked.

Professor Johan Giesecke, former chief scientist, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said India should have a ‘soft lockdown’.

“The situation that India is in, I think, you should have a soft lockdown, as soft as possible,” he said.

“I think for India, you will ruin your economy very quickly if you have a severe lockdown. It is better, skips the lockdown, take care of the old and the frail,” he noted.