Who gives 'unpronounceable' names to Covid meds, asks KTR. Shashi Tharoor replies

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said he is even ready to call these medicines 'Go Corona Go', a slogan made popular by RPI leader Ramdas Athawale.

Telangana minister K Taraka Rama Rao, known as KTR, has a strange problem with Covid-19 medicines, which have become household names now amid the ongoing second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The problem is not their shortage, but the fact that they have "unpronounceable" names, as the minister tweeted "on a lighter note". Listing out the names of the medicines, which includes Posaconazole, Cresemba, Tocilizumab, Remdesivir, Liposomal Amphotericin, Flavipiravir, Molnupiravir, Baricitinib etc. The list is long the minister said, jokingly hinting that Congress leader Shashi Tharoor may have something to do with these names.

The medicines which have become household names like Remdesivir are unpronounceable, Telangana minister KTR tweeted.

Playing along with KTR and his humour, Shashi Tharoor said he is not guilty of naming these medicines. Had it been left to him, the Congress leader would have happily called them 'CoroNil', 'CoroZero' and even 'GoCoronaGo'. "But these pharmacists are more procrustean..." Tharoor said. He also accused KTR of floccinaucinihilipilification.

While it was made clear that the Congress leader had no hand in naming the medicines, Twitter users were quick to google floccinaucinihilipilification and procrustean. Floccinaucinihilipilification is estimating something asworthless while a procrustean is one who enforces conformity without allowing much variantion.

While 'Coronil', not how Tharoor has spelt it, is an immunity booster of Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved, 'Go Corona Go' is a slogan given by the Republic Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale in 2020.

Towards the end of 2020, Athawala claimed that his slogan was instrumental in driving Corona away and as the mutant strain of the virus found in the United Kingdom started being reported in India, Athawale came up with another slogan 'No Corona, Corona No'.

With the resurgence of Covid-19 cases since March-April and that of mucormycosis in May, the names of several medicines have entered the everyday conversation as on various platforms doctors are sensitising people when to take medicine and when not. As 80 per cent of Covid-19 infections can be treated at home, the Union health ministry too has issued a detailed advisory of clinical management specifying which medicine can be taken at what stage of the infection. For example, Remdesivir is not to be given at the early stage — at home, doctors have said.