My Science Space

Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing and swiftly exploring areas of science, health and other sectors. But, to the best of our knowledge and understanding, it is very important to know that every technology comes up with new threats and challenges- ‘challenge to adhere with ethics, transparency, and to work with integrity and compliance’. In order to bring a chain of transparency and to minimize the indiscernible risk within the healthcare system over the use and misuse of advanced technologies alike AI, AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), XR (Extended Reality), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL) and so on, the World Health Organization released its first global report , a living document on Artificial Intelligence with six guiding principles that are appropriately measured for ethical usage of AI in health care sector and clinical trials to treat mild to severe diseases and to come up with faster and better solutions during any global public health crisis. T...

Director General-World Health Organisation, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries across the world to share doses for an equitable distribution of vaccines to end global pandemic catastrophe and human sufferings. He pleaded countries to contribute a minimum amount of share of vaccines out of their stock to help low-income nations come out of the severe health crisis caused due to SARS-Cov-2 and its variants. Until that is done, world could never approach for a global recovery in coming years. Access to COVID vaccines in Africa and other low/middle-income nations is critically low and sufficient amount of doses need to cover those regions faster otherwise all the efforts done till date will go in vain.  Transmission due to newly mutated variants is getting faster as virus is consistently mutating- More transmission, More variants ; Less transmission, Less variants- Dr. Tedros asserted. Delta is the most transmissible of all the variants identified so far, has been identifie...

 Key Takeaways- -Studies regarding Delta variant with additional mutation are underway and WHO is keeping a close look at its newly developed variant, AY.1. -Research institutes should effectively track efficacy of vaccines to collect more information to share with the public and the institutions. - WHO has the power to revoke any vaccine that loses its effectiveness against any current variants.  - Vaccines elicit level of efficacies, for instance in the case of mRNA vaccines like Moderna that elicit high antibodies and induce higher immune responses. - Immunology of vaccines is complex and studies are underway to come out with any conclusion at present.  - Until 60-70 percent of the population are vaccinated fully across the world, individual responsibilities take precedence to protect self and family to reduce any further transmission.  -Countries with growing infection rates should be careful. One size doesn't fit all but one should be careful in controlling tran...

India needs coordinated efforts from people across different walks of life. Not only governments, political leaders, scientists and doctors, but also industrialists, economists, advisors, civil society members, educators and scholars from different fields to share their valuable introspection, knowledge and understanding regarding their experiences and proven practices to counter the after effects and post consequences inflicted by the COVID-19 disease in a more intense yet placid manner. The evolution and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and its prevalent mutants is becoming a cause of concern for global leaders and institutions. The health care systems across the world have majorly collapsed due to the constant attack by the virus and its newly mutated forms. Delta and its variants have overpowered other variants for the past few days and it is reported to have spread across 11 countries including America. There were 40 cases reported across India too. Vaccination is just one of the given ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of the #7thInternationalYogaDay in the early hours of morning of #21June 2021, delivered a splendid speech unveiling the importance of Yoga and its practices. Opening his speech with a remarkable address regarding the existence and importance of Yoga, he said that despite the country reeling under the intense on-going health crisis caused by the COVID pandemic , #Yoga has emerged as the way and hope of life to live and the COVID-19 hasn't deterred the excitement and enthusiasm towards this healthy practice. Fondness for #Yoga has increased multi-fold in the last one and half years. He wished for a greater mental and physical well-being and abundance of health for each and everyone across India and the world during this critical phase. When the impact of the disease started showing its appearance in 2020, then no one had any idea on how to deal with it and during that crisis, Yoga emerged as a healthy medium to fight the criticali...

Father is someone, who builds an iconic image for his daughter. Father is someone, who holds an inspiration and raises benchmark for his children. Those who have him, are blessed with countless love, affection and motivation. I am too blessed with a kind, affectionate and a very gentle father, who shaped my life through his constant guidance and intellectuality, to rise above all adversities, all highs and lows, all ups-and-downs, and through all meandering curves that came across the path of my life. He kept pushing me to make me a better person and to emerge as a strong one in this fast approaching world. His words of wisdom, the knowledge and his experiences to see life, is just like a treasure in the ocean.  We share many similar traits being father and daughter and I am very thankful to have him in my life. His virtues and wisdom constantly inspired me with an old saying -"Age can never be a barrier but just a number" and we must keep learning and moving as long as we c...

In these trying times during pandemic, when most of the countries in the world are facing crisis to knock down the impact of pandemic and restore normalcy, Norway came forward to support the World Health Organisation in testing highly effective evidence-based Public Health and Social Intervention (PHSI)-based tools and measures to fight the impact of pandemic across the globe. Media Briefing on PHSIs The World Health Organisation on June 14th organised  a virtual press conference under the leadership of its chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus  on 'Public Health and Social Measures during COVID-19 pandemic', seeking more critical life-saving actions and support from all the governments across the world to control the menace of SARS-CoV-2. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus   Norwegian Health Minister, Mr. Bent Høie announced to provide US$ 5.4 million as a financial assistance to the organisation for its research initiative on extracting best possible PHSIs-ba...

Is it possible to find the place of origin of a virus through the procedure of genome sequencing, so as to investigate further about its existence in this world on how it originated? Is 'SARS-CoV-2' synthetic or natural? Finding all possibilities by investigating the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is the need of the hour because it’s directly related to the existence of human chain and can pose a detrimental impact on human population directly or indirectly. Let’s just hope that it would have had evolved with the process of mutation only, the very basic nature of a virus by which it multiplies and evolve. But still, we can not rule out the possibilities of investigation, and post finding the truth, then we must knock out and dilute all the baseless theories that have emerged across the globe to sustain faith in humanity on this earth. If China stands by truth and humanity, then it should come forward in every possible ways to know the truth of the origination of SARS-CoV-2. There should ...

The immune system in a human body consists of a network of cells and proteins that protects the body against any severe infection or in case of a major attack by any pathogen, for instance, viruses, bacteria, fungus, parasites etc. The immune system has an innate ability to keep a record of every germ that passes across our body. These microbes once try to reenter the body, get marked as specific-antigens, memorised by cells in-advance from its initial attack. When the immune system within our body encounters an outsider like bacteria or a virus or any other parasite, it responds automatically. The White Blood Cells (WBCs), also called as leucocytes, circulate in the blood and lymphatic vessels of the body. These WBCs act like a watchdog, are vigilant to every action taking place inside our body, such as invasion by any pathogen to harm the normal functioning of the system. When they observe such kind of suspicious activities near the peripheral area, they target it and multiply in num...

The worldwide health emergency caused by ‘SARS-CoV-2’ since January 2020, in a lot of ways has brought focus on most of the loopholes regarding our lifestyle and the system that we all are dealing with at present; needs to revamp its core principles and services at a massive scale. Now, more than ever, there is a need of exhaustive collaboration between the governments (Centre and states & states to states), societies, healthcare professionals, financial institutions, social institutions and last but not the least, the citizens of the nation, to carry a new healthy-cum-honest vision & mission, a healthy thought-process, a healthy outlook for life, a healthy revamped system, all-in place with a new approach to deal with any kind of emergencies- health, social, financial, frontiers and so on. One of the creative yet important measures, Google, can work on is- embedding new algorithms within its search tool. This innovative build-up in the search tool must be based on ‘ Probabil...

The on-going pandemic spread of the virus ‘ SARS-CoV-2 ’ resulted in the generation of thousands of its genome sequences across the globe. And so, with its unparalleled rate of growth, scientists, researchers and global health leaders felt the need of having a proper phylogenetic framework in order to track and understand the gravity, patterns and determinants of the fatality imposed by the virus on the population all over the world. At present, there are over 35,000 genome sequences that have either a complete or near complete genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2. So, let us talk about the definition of genome structure of the virus first. What does a virus genome made of? Well, the virus genome consists of symmetric protein called as ‘capsid’, which is composed of either a single or a multiple protein. The virus can have either a DNA or an RNA- based genome, respectively. So, a virus genome alters through the process of mutation by changing a few genetic letters by infecting more people ...

In a recent development, the World Health Organisation gave it's approval to China's COVID vaccine Sinovac to be used under Public Health Emergency. But, sadly, Covaxin, which has been produced by India's manufacturing unit, Bharat Biotech, is still non-qualified to go, causing a hiccup for those who already have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and would not be able to travel internationally till it gets approved. At present, Covaxin is approved in just nine nations all over the world- Iran, Philippines, Mauritius, Mexico, Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Guyana and India whereas Covishield (the Indian AstraZeneca) has been accepted widely across 130 countries. A week back, Bharat Biotech had already sent its proposal to WHO and after its findings, it was learnt that only 90 percent of the documentation was complete and rest was yet to be assured and shared by the company. Till date, over two crores of people have been vaccinated in India so far. After pulling down the res...

In the backdrop of #COVID pandemic crisis, to accelerate measures for a fair distribution and equitable access to vaccines worldwide, heads of International Monetary Fund (Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF), World Health Organisation (Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO), World Bank Group (Mr David R. Malpass, President, WBG), World Trade Organisation (Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, WTO) called for a global cooperation to save lives and urged to invest in additional capacity for speeding up the production of vaccines to counter damage caused by new COVID-variants across the globe. COVID-19 free world In a one-hour exhaustive deliberation, all the four chiefs of the global organisation pushed several key strategies on the table to minimise the economic burden caused by COVID-19 virus and its variants and to uplift health-related boosters and investments to construct a uniform global health security. As per WHO’s report, there have been 170,42...