Lockdown a drastic strategy to eliminate coronavirus, says Oxford University don

Professor Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, says lockdown is a drastic measure and may not be a long-term solution.

While the Indian government has often cited the lockdown as a vital factor that helped control the spread of Covid-19, Professor Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, says lockdown is a drastic measure and may not be a long-term solution.

“I think lockdown is really a drastic strategy which is being implemented rather widely without any consideration as to what costs it imposes. I have been pushing for a while now to consider the costs of lockdown and to urge governments to reopen rather being in a state of lockdown or keep on re-imposing lockdowns in the hope of somehow eliminating or eradicating this virus,” she told HT in an interview.

Professor Gupta acknowledged that lockdown may have reduced transmission of Covid-19.

“Lockdown has some effects. It does reduce transmission. Lockdown played a role in the dissemination of the virus to out of some metropolitan areas both in the UK and Germany and various parts of Europe. But I don’t know if that’s a long-term solution.”

“It is nonsensical to compare India to Germany or the UK or to the US or Brazil as if there is a sort of a beauty contest going on. Essentially the virus is spreading through a geographical kind of dimension. It starts in China and I am very surprised that it hadn’t already arrived in India, in certain parts of India particularly metropolitan areas. I am very surprised that it may not have arrived and spread through significantly before lockdown,” Professor Gupta said.

Asked whether the use of BCG vaccine in India could be a reason for the comparatively lower mortality rate from Covid-19, she said it was unlikely.

“I very much doubt it could be the BCG vaccine which doesn’t even do the job it is supposed to do which is to protect against TB so if it protects against coronavirus that would be something…. The virus doesn’t affect everyone equally so there is vulnerable sector of the population

who are at risk of diseases and death. Some of those are very frail, elderly populations,” she said.