Social Distancing Time: Some Thoughts

In modern living, people always find the lack of adequate time on their hands. Be it studies, work, earning, managing income, socializing, cooking, watch TV or smartphone uses, we are constantly pressed for time. But what happens if I have too much time on my hands?

The tiny invisible coronavirus is affecting us and everyone is encouraged to practice “social distancing”. It is a preventive measure, and a concept of staying away from a person who is sick with virus infection, then the risk of being exposed to the sneezes of COVID-19 positive person drops dramatically.

The virus has isolated most of us from each other. These days being isolated and what’s the first thing I do when I wake up early. I listen/ read the news, check emails, and scroll through social media – WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook; and browse through open sources of a plethora of repositories available. But that still leaves me with so much time to spare. I have more time to look closer at the past experiences of my life. More than ever, I’m learning to think about what is happening around us.

In ancient times disease outbreak would be confined to a particular geographical area. But this corona outbreak has taken only a few weeks for the COVID-19 virus to spread from one small place to every corner of our plant.

There are a plethora of opinions one can find in the media and news. One of the opinions is people depend on each other to survive more than ever. We trust or depend on each other academically, economically or technologically only to make our lives simpler, easier and better.

Every morning I am passionate about drinking a cup of Darjeeling (black leaf) tea, which is grown in the nearby Darjeeling hills, collected and packaged in Siliguri - a growing city at sub-Himalayan West Bengal, stored in Delhi, and distributed by courier to across the world.

The Samsung mobile phone or the laptop that is my daily companion was made in Hongkong or China, created/designed in Seoul, executed in India, then shipped and sold by Amazon to me. In the whole process, the consignment crosses several cities or even borders and changes hands via many people.

Coming to my professional area, the development of a new medicine had to meet stringent requirements. Federal food and drug administration (FDA), USA approval is required for a new drug to be marketed in the USA and many other countries. Marketing approval in India and most countries depend on the status of a newly developed drug in other countries particularly in the USA, Great Britain, and Germany.

The new drug, mostly developed in the western countries by MNC through an arduous pathway that normally takes a long 8-10 years of research, then is manufactured in India as a branded drug and then as a generic once out of patent after 20 years, and shipped and distributed to many countries. 

Many researchers of pharmaceutical companies are prioritizing the search for coronavirus cure – screening existing molecules, existing drugs or developing a vaccine. Researchers are speeding up the time it takes to develop and bring such a safe medicine/vaccine to the market. Safe doesn’t mean harmless. The regulatory body’s approval certifies for marketing when a drug’s benefits outweigh its risks.

It’s undeniable fact today to acknowledge that this is not a normal time. Nonetheless, it may be a great time to wander through the unknown, connect to everyone and think about what really matters to each one today.