M Zahidul Haque
A few days back, the World Health Organization (WHO) had suspended the clinical trial of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine following publication of a research paper in the peer reviewed medical journal-‘Lancet’ stating that people taking hydroxychloroquine were at a higher risk of death and heart problems than those who were not taking the drug. It may be mentioned here that the US President has been repeatedly emphasizing on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a therapy against COVID-19, a disease caused by Coronavirus. The President confirmed at a news conference that he was taking hydroxychloroquine every day for two weeks to ward off the new coronavirus.
Again, the WHO in the first week of June announced the resumption of its hydroxychloroquine clinical trials after The Lancet’s withdrawal of the earlier published article on the drug through issuing an ‘Expression of Concern’ signifying the research under reference was problematic!
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has been suspecting China for spreading the coronavirus intentionally or accidentally. He has also questioned WHO’s role in timely disseminating of related information to the World following the dreadful attack by the novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. On April 14, the U.S. President alleged at a press conference that coronavirus’ spread in the United States was probably WHO’s fault, not of his Administration.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump has stopped funding the WHO, the United States is the highest contributor to the World Health Organization. Recently Trump said that he would terminate U.S. relationship with WHO.
How the coronavirus spread throughout the world and clicking on the gaps and lapses of the concerned authorities is not so important at this critical time; the global community must work together to find out a sustainable solution to the corona problem.
The absolute truth is, no appropriate and effective therapy to fight coronavirus has yet been discovered or developed. The available therapies are just a trial and error approaches to containing corona. Efficacy of a particular therapy, as this author feels, varies from patient to patient depending on the patient’s physical condition plus physiology.
Instead of nurturing Politik of misunderstandings and confusions, let us work together towards winning the battle against the Coronavirus!
(Author: Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka.)
