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Are repeat COVID infections dangerous? What the science says By Dr.Mahboob Khan

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Researchers disagree over how bad it is to be reinfected, and whether COVID-19 can cause lasting changes to the immune system. When the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a strange and terrifying adversary that plunged the world into chaos. More than three years later, the infection’s symptoms are all too familiar and  COVID-19 is here to stay  — part of a long list of common diseases that infect humans. Experts estimate that the majority of the world’s population has been infected at least once; in the United States, some estimates suggest that as many as 65% of people have had multiple infections 1 . And it’s likely that in the decades to come, we’re all  destined to get COVID-19 many more times . Just how much harm repeat infections will cause is a matter of debate. “There are some almost pathologically polarized opinions out there,” says Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London. One side argues that SARS-CoV-2 is a run-...
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Covid - Handle The Second Wave As An Emergency

  The fact is that at the pace that we are vaccinating - 1.5 million daily - it will take us, according to Bloomberg, three and a half years to vaccinate 75 per cent of the population and reach herd immunity. The US is targeting September 2021. If we target only those over 18 years, it will be close to two years. The fact is we cannot wait that long. The second wave in Maharasthra, other states and a third wave in Delhi, Haryana and the like would have consequences that are too severe to imagine. The Indian medical system would be stretched to the limit and shutdowns and curfews would devastate an economy that is just about emerging from its worst year in decades. Any more closures, restrictions and slowdown in consumer spending would break the back of most MSMEs and lead to mass unemployment. Unless we realise that we are in an emergency situation, we will not be able to reach herd immunity this year. If we assume that the population under 18/19 doesn't need to be v...
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The Psychology of Successful Begging

  One day a few years ago I passed a street teeming with panhandlers, begging for change. And it made me wonder what causes people to stop for beggars and what causes them to walk on by. So I hung out for a while, engaging in a bit of discreet peoplewatching. Many people passed the beggars without giving anything, but there were a few who stopped. What was it that separated those who paused and gave money from those who didn’t? And what separated the more successful beggars from those who were less successful? Was it something specific about their situation, or their presentation? Was it the beggar’s strategy? To look into this question, I called on Mr.X, an acting student at X University who had just finished hiking around India. Not having shaved in months and already looking pretty scruffy, he was ready for the job (plus as part of his training to be an actor I figured it would be good for him to learn how to beg for money – at the time he did not see that particular benefit). S...
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Using Artificial Intelligence against COVID-19

  Dr. Mahboob Ali Khan MHM, PhD  World Renowned Healthcare Quality Consultant     Introduction COVID-19 disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was identified in December 2019 in China and declared a global pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a potentially powerful tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. AI can, for present purposes, be defined as Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Computer Vision applications to teach computers to use big data-based models for pattern recognition, explanation, and prediction. Actual and Potential Contributions of AI against COVID-19 There are six areas where AI can contribute to the fight against COVID-19: i) early warnings and alerts, ii) tracking and prediction, iii) data dashboards, iv) diagnosis and prognosis, v) treatments, and cures, and vi) social control. Treatments and Cures Even long before the COVID-19 outbreak, ...
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