Let me tell you an amazing story...

In the 1990s, a maverick breast surgeon at @TataMemorial (fresh from his return from the UK) stepped up to do research. Now, to understand the situation, you should go back 30 years, when research was not as big as it is now, and certainly not from surgeons.

Surgeons, and especially cancer surgeons, were renowned for their technical prowess, and their sheer bravado – "wherever the cancer, however advanced, I will take it out". So, our surgeon-researcher was ridiculed for even attempting clinical research

For a surgeon, he couldn’t have chosen a worse topic to research on: early detection; nothing to do with surgery, or even treatment. Remember, this was the 1990s. Cowboy surgery was celebrated, and research ridiculed

Being a breast surgeon, he was troubled with women consistently coming with advanced cancers, and he set out to see if he could work on picking them up at an earlier stage. But community-based early detection needs money, and he just didn’t have it.

I know the #COVID-19 numbers in India are not looking good, but here are my (not so) random thoughts on it

We have 2 options – one, rant & rail against the ‘system’ and lament how it has let us down; second, do whatever we can to avoid getting infected & if infected, minimize adverse consequences to ourselves & others. If you belong to the first, you can stop reading now

How can we avoid getting infected? There’s no magic bullet, I’m afraid. This is primarily a “stick to the basics” approach. More difficult than it sounds.

First, maintain all precautions that we know help. These include masks (whenever you are not at home and not alone), physical distancing to the extent possible, and washing hands frequently. The 3 Ws – Wear a mask, Watch your distance, Wash your hands.

Masks work, and are probably the most important precaution given our current understanding that aerosols are the predominant mechanism of spread. The best is a well-fitting N95 mask, which is now widely available & not too expensive – you could re-use them too.