Where Are We?

In this testing times of social isolation where we are facing the wrath of the coronavirus pandemic, a series of questions linger in my mind. Where are we in terms of technology to save lives? Are we doing enough? Has ever been done enough? Is saving a life worth all of it?

In the past two weeks, I have spent most on reading a few books on science and technology. From the Steve Jobs biography which chronicles how he transformed the computer industry along with people like Bill Gates, building innovative consumer products, software, hardware to the biography of the world's famous equation E=MC^2 which portrays the great works of scientists like Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, Marie Curie, and so many others. All these things tell how these ideas were so innovative and inventive that they revolutionized the whole world and changed the course in terms of science and technology. Due to the enormous contribution of all the above people, mankind took a giant leap and we stand at the most advanced level of technology.

At this moment when I am penning this article, the world is entirely running on the software platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Business operations for IT companies, classes for educational institutes like schools, colleges, all are running on laptops, mobile phones. The Internet is the only way connecting every one of us. The inventors of electricity, signals, optical fibers, modems, computers, software, hardware deserve all the praise and applause of the world, had they not created this world, the world would have perished. A more important part of the economy, many manufacturing plants are shut down owing to the threat they face due to physical contact. Some of the important ones are still operational. This temporary situation may put some of the manufacturing sectors into a jolt but the world runs on fuel, food, industries without which it cannot sustain. It is being largely optimistic that these sectors will quickly pick up.

What message this current situation gives us? Will all the future businesses will be more software-centric and not hardware-centric because a similar situation may arise in the future? The answer is maybe partly true. To open a software company today, one doesn't necessarily need an office space and large infrastructure. That requires a heavy financial investment. Many of the companies today run on virtual platforms without any office space. The return of investment is quick. If one idea of a startup works, within a fortnight a startup becomes a million-dollar company. On the other hand, while opening a manufacturing plant, you need heavy investment in terms of finance, manpower, machines and several other necessary clearances to start production. The return of investment also takes time. But having said that, there may be a situation in the coming future, where the internet and the world wide web goes down, and a software virus just like COVID-19 affects each digital device, mobile or a computer. Many software companies will be wiped off overnight. There can be a cyber attack on all the systems of the world by a group of hackers who may hold the software world on a ransom by developing some malicious software. None of the digital devices would work. Is the world prepared for that? As the current conspiracy theories which are trending, can any country engineer a cyber attack on the whole world and then come up with an anti-virus software code that will solve the problem and hence make them trillionaires? This may sound like a hypothetical situation appearing to you now, but seeing the present state of things, anything can be possible. With artificial intelligence and machine learning taking the center stage, the necessary spoiler may not be done by a human being but by a computer itself. As they evolve and grow by themselves, machines could be learning more about human beings' behavior, the geopolitical climate and much much more.

To see how science and technology invented such path-breaking things, we need to analyze how we came to the necessity to do it. Issac Newton discovered gravity by observing an apple fall down a tree. It was in his scientific nature that he pursued that event and gave the world gravity. Albert Einstein famously developed the e=mc^2 equation as he was pursuing theoretical physics and studying light. Faraday famously thought out of the box when he persisted that the magnetic current can flow in circles. Steve Jobs oversaw the design of the Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad devices and drove them to the consumer market giving a user experience like no other. Bill Gates designed the Windows Operating System, MS Word and distributed it across millions of computers throughout the world. All of these people had an inherent desire to create, invent something new which suited their capabilities and interests. All of them made history. Somehow or the other all these people got massive support from people, the government in terms of resourcing, finance, favoritism. They all used this opportunity to create something new for human use in terms of science and technology. People also showed a lot of popular support and this led to a further surge in other types of products, inventions. But has the same thing happened with medical technology? Do the doctors, healthcare workers get that type of support? Do hospitals get that type of investment? Yes. Maybe. Do they produce path-breaking technology that can cure cancer? Do billion-dollar companies spend enough on medical technology? There are a lot of questions to put forth but I guess the answer is already there. The current situation we are in, the rarest in almost 100 years, it has lead to the notion that enough hasn't been done before and the same is being done now also. The biggest economies in the world which have the best healthcare system have not been able to handle the influx of COVID-19 cases and have let them overwhelmed. At present, all the developed, as well as developing countries, are struggling to contain it. Its a pandemic in scale nobody had expected, the virus is a mutated one, spreads fast to affect so many people. There is no vaccine for it now. Why is it so difficult to contain it? Human biology is a complex mechanism to deal with. Is there not much research on it? Why a cold and cough is causing so many deaths? To treat something like that, some type of vaccine should do the job. Are the mutations of a virus difficult to analyze?The questions won't end. They won't until we start looking into the medical sector on a very serious note. Even though there are world-class doctors, physicians, microbiologists who are always at the top of their game and there is no lack of intellect in this field, the whole world doesn't look up to those in the medical sector as much they look up to other things.

The reason is pretty simple. All think of investing money as a means to get something more in return. Return of Investment (ROI) is the technical jargon used. If there is no investment return on the money invested with profit, there simply is no reason to invest money. There is no profit, which is the ideal goal of any business. Moreover, does it also imply that the world including the governments, authorities don't care to save lives? Do they just want to let that life go? The world is at chaos right now not because people are dying, but because it has taken away our freedom to go out and exercise our normal routine. The highly contagious nature of the disease has disrupted everything. The freedom to go out and travel, party, to watch a movie, to play has been snatched away. Everybody genuinely should ask themselves the question of whether our attitude would have been the same if COVID-19 was not a contagious disease and more people would have died in that scenario. Since it wouldn't have affected our daily lives and routines, whatever the death toll may be, it would have not mattered at all. That is the bitter truth. Other diseases are far more infectious and the mortality rate is higher. But nobody cares about it as it does not invade one's freedom. Every one of us has to reach a far more mature stage where we start to see things which matter.

Leaving aside a handful of developed nations, most of the countries spend very very less on the healthcare domain. The major expenditure of a financial budget goes into manufacturing, defense, education which are also an essential part of a country's economy. Developed countries do well in spending a large of their expenses on health insurance coverage, ensuring health benefits to children specifically and they do it by taxing the citizens. United kingdom, Italy and many other European countries have good healthcare systems. Even they believed they can handle medical emergencies. But the COVID-19 crossed all boundaries in infecting innumerable people and they are also having a pretty bad time catering to the healthcare needs. Unites States, currently registering the most COVID-19 cases and most death tolls are fighting a long drawn battle. A country like India which had taken advance preventive measures to contain the virus is seeing a surge in the frequency of the cases daily. The cases increased more after the nationwide lockdown was ordered and more testing was done. The future looks quite gloomy especially in the coming 3 weeks and India's healthcare system may break if millions get infected. What do we do? The situation may phase out in the coming 3-4 months and we will hopefully be back on our tracks. But it will never be the same again. Never we will take things for granted anymore.

The first important thing to do is invest heavily in medical research, healthcare facilities and the building of hospitals. To ensure that every single citizen can utilize these facilities, a national healthcare insurance system should be framed and every single citizen should be enrolled in it by the government. There already may be many schemes like the Ayushman Bharat which primarily aim at poor people and do the same but its time that is implemented on a very large scale, albeit the size of the aadhar registration. There can be a nominal premium fee depending upon the economic situation of the family. Private hospitals can partner up with government where collaboratively they can work upon on cases and may share the costs of the medical expenses if any if it exceeds the coverage guaranteed by the national healthcare insurance system. If it can be done, there should be only one national healthcare insurance system. The system's software platform can be designed by any major IT company. Apart from the government, big corporates maybe need to invest more in the healthcare domain as part of their CSR initiatives and foundation organizations. Many are largely contributing to it already. In India, corporates like Tata Group through its Tata trust, Azimji Premji's foundation, Infosys Foundation, Reliance Foundation, and many others have donated generously and heavily to the sectors of education and health. Bill Gates through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated half of his wealth on clean drinking water, health and hygiene. He has even gone more ahead by designing, developing manufacturing plants that use waste products and utilize them to power the plant and produce safe, clean drinking water. He is coming up with manufacturing plants that harness nuclear energy. We need exactly these kinds of people who passionately can contribute to improving healthcare systems around the world.

Even if we put forth the idea that countries should put their money heavily into the healthcare domain, will everyone abide? Of course not. We again need a law for this. We may need an international forum that enforces these rules on a strict basis. This can also be done region by region basis which won't give unnecessary power to any single country. If we consider the Asia-Pacific region, there can be an evaluation conference organized every year, lets say one year in India, next year in Japan, which can comprise of a task force which can do a ground to ground analysis. If any country fails to implement the necessary expenditure on medical and other requisites/standards set up by the forum, that country can be given a bad ranking/blacklisting by the forum. Law is a necessity to protect people and needs to be implemented strictly to keep doing it so. 

Another more important aspect is the importance given to molecular research, microbiology and medical research. The infusion of funding is a must in it. Medical researchers, biochemists, and microbiologists have to be encouraged, respected and given more weightage when they come up with their analysis or any new inventions. One way to spike interest in taking up a medical job is to modify the education system a bit. Medical education and necessary research go on for years, which is the essence of it. There have to be methods developed to reduce the stress, pressure which our future doctors and healthcare professionals face during this period. It is indeed a high time we take care of our doctors and healthcare professionals because now if we don't, we never will. 

So has there been done enough to bolster the medical research? Are we doing enough to help the medical sector to thrive more in their area? Are we paying enough attention and looking at it as an important part of our lives? Where do we stand there? Where are we?

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