Family members grieve while performing the last rites of a COVID-19 victim, in Jammu, May 5, 2021. Photo: PTI
Dr Rakesh Mishra, one of India’s foremost scientists and a member of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG), told The Wire that in early March, the expert advisory panel of which he is a part had formally warned the government of its “high concern” that new and more contagious variants of coronavirus were taking hold of the country.
Mishra’s video interview to Karan Thapar reveals several truths on India’s handling of the crisis at a time when it was in a comparatively nascent stage.
Below is the transcript of the interview.
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Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to a special interview for The Wire. On Saturday, Reuters released a story about how a consortium of national laboratories tasked with genome sequencing or INSACOG had forewarned the government in early March that they have high concerns about variant strains of coronavirus that were particularly contagious and were in danger of taking over the country, and that report Reuters claimed has either been ignored by the government or at least not properly acted upon. So today we ask was such a warning given by INSACOG to the government and how did the government respondent?
Joining me to answer those questions is a member of INSACOG, the committee that gave that warning and the director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology of Hyderabad, Rakesh Mishra. Dr. Mishra, let’s start with that report released by Reuters on Saturday which sadly has been largely ignored by the Indian media with just one or two exceptions. The report says that as far back as early March, INSACOG had forewarned the government that they had high concerns about various strains of coronavirus that were highly contagious and were in danger of taking over the country. As a member of INSACOG can you confirm was such a warning given to the government in early March?
Dr. Rakesh Mishra: So Karan, INSACOG is a consortium of ten government labs and the nodal lab is NCDC which is related to health ministry and this consortium is funded by DBT so this is all a government thing. We have meetings every alternative day, where we discuss what is happening and we submit data every day and try to make sense out of it. These meetings are attended by everybody, DBT representatives, NCDC, all the ten labs. So 20-30 people attend these meetings, everybody is in loop on a constant basis. Then these meetings’ gist is conveyed through the NCDC to the Ministry of Health to whom they actually are reporting. So I understand that there is a continuous flow of information on a daily basis from INSACOG to the government sources.
KT: Can I interrupt sir? Can you confirm that in early March INSACOG communicated to the government a warning that you had high concerns about variant strains of coronavirus that were highly contagious and were in danger of taking over the country? Was such a warning given by INSACOG in early March?
Also watch: ‘We Warned Govt in Early March of Covid Surge, Impossible to Believe Modi Wasn’t Told’
RM: This concern was raised when we were detecting new variants. We were detecting UK variants in the airport and some in the community. I understand that these minutes are seen by appropriate or relevant people in the health ministry. Now I can’t say that we have sent in writing – where I am signatory – of warning. But our finding of the variants is really a kind of warning that we are heading towards a worse situation because these are new variants…and we don’t know them.
KT: I am interrupting again because I think its very important that the audience should be clear about what you are saying. You said this concern was raised. You also said you are not aware whether a formal letter was written because you weren’t a signatory. But you added that this concern was kind of a warning, in other words INSACOG did raise this concern in early March and in raising this concern, it was a kind of warning.
RM: Yes yes, you have understood correctly. In fact, we should appreciate that INSACOG was formed only for this purpose…that look at the genome and do the surveillance of genome if there is anything of concern. That’s why we are reporting on a daily basis. In fact, we never said that situation is comfortable.
KT: Can I ask you this Dr. Mishra, when this concern was raised, who was it raised with, the Health Secretary Dr. V.K. Paul, the Health Minister?
RM: See, because the meeting content is conveyed to the government through NCDC so I think Dr. Sujit Singh must be conveying as whatever is the protocol. All the press notes…they have a system to follow, so I think there’s a channel and I think it must be going through the Secretary, Health, but I may be wrong on that point.