New Delhi: On Sunday, top virologist Shahid Jameel resigned as the chairman of scientific advisory group of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), forum set up by the government in December 2020 for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of COVID-19 in India.
Dr. Jameel is currently the Director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University.
In a text message to Reuters, he said, "I am not obliged to give a reason," adding that he quit on Friday.
INSACOG is a network of ten laboratories established in December 2020 for continuously monitoring the genomic changes of SARS-CoV-2 in India, through Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). With six variants of concern (VOC) of coronavirus that is dominating global topography currently, India is grappling with three particular variants, i.e. the UK, Brazil, and South Africa, since the second COVID-19 wave struck the country.
Earlier this month, Reuters had reported that Dr Jameel's INSACOG had warned the government in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country which has now turned out to be the B.1.617 strain. It has now killed thousands and since the healthcare system wasn't prepared for the sudden surge, hospitals & Covid facilities is still under pressure. Dr. Jameel had told Reuters that he was concerned that authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence as they set policy.
Recently, Dr. Jameel explained that India's second COVID-19 wave seems to have flattened but the climb down will be a more prolonged, long drawn-out process than the first and will possibly run till July. According to the scientist, COVID-19 cases in the second wave also won't come down in as steady a fashion as they did after the first wave.
'In the first wave, we did see a steady decline. But remember this time we are starting from a higher number. Instead of 96,000-97,000 cases, we are starting from over 400,000. So it will take that much longer. And during the process at every time point, you'll have a lot of cases', Jameel explained during an online event organised by Indian Express.
In his view, the actual mortality data for India is completely wrong. 'not because of some evil design of someone or a group of people or the state or whatever. But the way we record data I think is faulty', he was quoted as saying. Discussing why India faced a second wave, he said the constant narrative was that somehow Indians are special and have some special kind of immunity. He also cited other "super spreading events", including elections rallies and religious congregations, for the high number of cases in the second wave.
Talking about the vaccine shortage in some states, he noted that big countries which vaccinated considerable proportion of their population had booked their doses around June 2020. India didn't do that. Enough people, he said, did not get vaccinated when they had the opportunity in January and February.
The virologist also warned that country could possibly see many Covid waves depending on the conditions at that time and the progress of the vaccination drive.
(With agency inputs)