Be smart, stay foolish, take care

Not too many days ago I found myself facing two questions Was I an antivaxxer or a provaxxer Did I believe the drug Ivermectin was a sure cure for COVID19The evidence indicates that I must be a provaxxer because I have already received two vaccine shots The AstraZeneca was on July 25 2021 It did not prevent me from coming down with COVID19 three months later on October 2The hospital treated me with monoclonal antibodies and after one intravenous infusion I was right as rain within 48 hoursI got my Moderna mRNA vaccine shot on January 27 2022 I had a mild reaction for two days which was easily fixed with TylenolNonetheless I came down with COVID19 a second time on July 22 2022 almost exactly six months later This time all symptoms were mild not enough to keep me from working and I was normal by the fifth dayAnd therersquos the evidence A man takes two vaccines gets COVID twice nonetheless is cured by a decisive and unusual intervention the first time and barely suffers the second timeShould we conclude that the vaccines were ineffective No vaccine for this or any other disease comes with a failsafe guarantee of 100 per cent lifelong protection The yellow fever vaccine for example is not valid for more than 10 yearsWas my milder second attack because of the mRNA vaccine or because my body had developed some natural immunity Does this experience make me a provaxxer or antivaxxerWhich brings me to the second question about Ivermectin Would I take it or recommend it to someone with COVID19 Till yesterday my answer might have been an unequivocal no I am on somewhat shakier ground nowmdashand that requires some explanationDuring the pandemic I diligently followed developments in the understanding of the virus and its prevention and treatment Coming up with perfect information in the middle of an evolving pandemic is not easy and I didnrsquot expect any better There was a morass of conflicting evolving information often tainted by poor research halfbaked hypotheses conspiracy theories and corporate vested interestsOne did onersquos best often going by gut instinct and friendsrsquo experiences Humans are gifted at reaching clear conclusions from scanty data From the data I developed an abiding mistrust of WHO and Bill GatesWHO misled the world for a year by insisting that the virus spread primarily through droplets and contaminated surfaces despite an open letter with evidence from 200 senior scientists pointing out the potential for airborne transmission They only updated their guidance 13 months later in April 2021This behaviour at such a dire time carried the stench of institutional hubrisAs for Bill Gates I have always been sceptical that a man whose life had been built on capitalism and greed would turn overnight into a kindhearted philanthrope even while acknowledging that his funding had enabled significant research into several diseasesMy inner journalist suspected that corporate interests informed his benevolence When he refused to share vaccine manufacturing technology with poor countries insisting that they buy it from American pharma giants my suspicions became certainty Gates is more a saviour of corporate wealth than human livesThe internet meanwhile continued recommending certain treatments and measures while deprecating others Ivermectin was one of them All my hours of research could not unearth a single decisive study that showed clear negative or positive results Despite inconclusive evidence most dismissed Ivermectin as ineffective veterinary ldquohorse pasterdquoIn this period I would have regular conversations with a friend who was both emphatically antivaccine and proIvermectin Using information from online sources he had concluded that neither masks social distancing nor vaccines were needed since Ivermectin could cure COVID19 He made sure his family stayed away from them tooThen three people including his wife and two seniors tested positive for coronavirus though they had no symptoms His trusted family doctor prescribed a single pill of Ivermectin each They developed no symptoms till the next test which was negativeIrsquom hardpressed to believe that all three tests were false positives and that three infected persons two of them elderly remained symptomfree on their own The only common factor was Ivermectin This personal experience of a close friend was more compelling to me than anything else I can no longer dismiss Ivermectin even though I might wish for more evidence before accepting that it is a universal cure for COVID19 These days I follow certain simple rules as far as accepting or rejecting information goes1 Suspect anyone who claims to have ldquothe truthrdquo and disparages dissenters as ignorant or fools2 Be extra alert if they claim to have knowledge so specialised that ordinary mortals had best just take their word for it3 Read the summary results section of peerreviewed scientific papers carefully If the evidence is described as insufficient or inconclusive know that this is how scientists say ldquoWe donrsquot know yetrdquoIt means that yoursquore on your own and had best start relying on your own research and conclusionsFinally stay foolish Implicitly trust the person who says ldquoThis is what I believe now but I may be wrongMaybe therersquos more to learnrdquoYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper