2020 will go down in history as the year of the COVID pandemic. This year has been fraught with anxiety, fear and a new normal.
As the world grappled with this new virus and ensuing lockdowns, team FIT buckled down to help get some answers. From debunking myths on ‘COVID cures’ to exploring the burden on healthcare workers, we followed the COVID story in its entirety.
Read some of our highlights from 2020!
Periods and PPEs: Stories of Women Healthcare Workers
Working while on your period is always tough, but for these COVID-19 warriors, their stories are never heard.
Janki says her periods by itself are tough, “They have always been this messy, painful chaotic affair. And add to that mix PPE, then it's a whole new animal.”
How are women healthcare workers working in COVID-19 wards and ICUs while wearing PPEs and on their periods?
Read here to find out.
‘Patients Are in Diapers, We have to Change Them’: Resident Docs
“Patients are in diapers, because they are breathless. We can’t let them go to the bathroom, what if they collapse in the bathroom?”Resident Doctor, Mumbai
Healthcare workers across India - and the world - are under immense pressure. In Mumbai, the hardest-hit city in India, doctors are buckling under the strain.
Resident doctors, the unsung heroes of COVID who do much of the fieldwork (and grunt work!) and get little recognition.
These young doctors face the rising cases head-on, and speak to FIT about their daily struggles.
Their voices are anonymous as the cost of speaking out can be harsh.
Watch their stories here.
Doctors’ Day: Mumbai Docs Battling COVID Share Their Experiences
Clocking hours of duty in COVID-19 wards while working under stressful conditions, Mumbai doctors have been overwhelmed over the last few weeks. As of 1 May, India’s financial capital recorded over 7,600 COVID-19 cases and the numbers only seem to be increasing.
Faced with the pandemic that has arguably hit the city health care systems the hardest, doctors share their experience in this time of crisis with FIT.
Read on here.
Unheard & Dismissed: Why Are Nurses Being Denied the Very Basic?
“We are not being provided with accommodation. Many of us have nowhere to go. The landlords refuse to take us in. What do we do?”
“We have no AC. My colleagues have fainted because of working in the laminated PPE kits for hours.”
Nurses form an integral part of the health workforce. They are overworked, underpaid and undervalued, despite putting in extra work and pulling off shifts that stretch for as long as 12 hours. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the gaps, discrepancies and disparities that have been plaguing our healthcare system for years.
FIT speaks to nurses working in hospitals across different Indian cities to see how the new COVID pandemic and the reignited disparities are impacting their lives.
Read more here.
1 Lakh Doctor Deaths: Remembering Dr Pratiksha, The Pregnant COVID-19 Martyr
“When we heard ma’am passed away, it was like the ground slipped beneath my feet.”Dr Mala Bansod Medical officer, Irwin Government Hospital Amravati, Maharashtra
India has recorded 1 lakh deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 400 among these are frontline healthcare workers. Doctors, nurses, ASHA workers and ancillary staff who put their lives on the line to protect us against the virus.
This is the story of one such doctor.
Watch here.
‘Don’t Go By Efficacy, Oxford Vaccine is the Best News for India’
"If a vaccine is 70 percent efficacious but offers 90 percent coverage, compared to a vaccine that is 90 percent efficacious, but offers only 50 percent coverage, I'll any day go for better coverage," said virologist Dr Shahid Jameel while decoding the various efficacy figures thrown up by top three COVID-19 vaccines. He calls Oxford vaccine data very good news for India, and for the developing world.
Read here for more information.
Nurses Day 2020: Watch the Stories of Real Life COVID-19 Heroes
What’s it like being on the frontlines of this virus?
To offer a helping hand for the people in need. That’s our goal.”Anusha Thomas, staff nurse, SICU, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh
While all healthcare workers deserve mention for their efforts nurses are often 'invisible' even though they are the ones spending the most time with patients.
This Nurses Day falls in the middle of a pandemic, and globally, nurses are getting the recognition they deserve.
Watch more here.
Does India Have a Vaccine Distribution Plan? Experts Answer
COVID-19 vaccine updates are creating all the buzz right now. There’s been a stream of positive trial results proving the efficacy of several big-name covid vaccines like the Oxford vaccine or Pfizer vaccine. But all this begs a bigger question:
Does India have a vaccine distribution plan?
Find out here.
Magic Papad to Biryani: Can You ‘Boost’ Your Immunity With Food? Magic Papad to Biryani: Can You ‘Boost’ Your Immunity With Food?
As more and more products are being marketed as 'immunity-boosters' in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, are we betraying science? Can papad, biryani, or kadha really boost our immunity and protect us from the coronavirus?
Trust me, if things were in my hands, I’d be having lunch with my favorite celebrity tomorrow, hoarding up on all the books in the world, and gorging on biryani as my COVID-19 medicine.
Watch here to understand more.
FAQs: Virologist Answers Questions from the ‘Vaccine-Hesitant’
Can I trust the safety of a COVID vaccine?
Does everyone really need to take it?
Can I wait for 6 months, and see its effects on other people before I decide?
Vaccine news has been the light at the end of the tunnel for most of us. But there are still a few sceptics, who believe in the science of vaccines but aren't quite convinced about a COVID vaccine. FIT asks virologist Dr Shahid Jameel some of the most common questions to help quell our anxieties over the covid vaccine.
Find out here.
Video | What Does It Mean for the Coronavirus to Be Airborne?
On Tuesday, 8 July, the World Health Organization acknowledged that there is “emerging evidence” that the novel coronavirus may be airborne after an open letter by 239 scientists asked the agency to revise its guidelines.
A WHO official said that airborne transmission in crowded, closed or poorly ventilated spaces cannot be ruled out, but further assessment is needed for airborne transmission to be definitive, reported the BBC.
The scientists have urged that with significant evidence emerging for smaller or bigger particles remaining in the air, the safety and precautionary protocols would have to be updated to cater to airborne transmission as well.
But what does this mean and how does it change our understanding of the virus?
Watch our explainer here.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)