Wow, what a great piece!
what an irony that the covid restrictions (not corona the virus), put an end to university education on virology. At least here in Germany, they have not increased the course capacities, the same as they reduced the intensive care beds...as if viruses are not real. And it is really an understudied topic and so interesting since it teaches about evolution and the most fundamental principles of existence.
I mean we see it in the fact that we use theological language like "the virus is doing this and that" and often academics say "nah, I know its only for the sake of teaching it" but in fact we have no hypotheses that can describe the process
And yes, viruses are interesting that way. It is almost as if it is biological dust that comes to life inside the host cell. It is right there on the fence between living and dead. 🙂
thanks for sharing your view, you are absolutely right, the campus should stay closed for students. But I guess that people in India are much more competent in compensating this with online courses. Let's hope for normalization soon. Looking forwards to your coming articles.
Wow they reduced ICU beds. I understand why they have restriction on campus activities. I mean even though during the 1st wave the young were not at high risk, but in India many young people stay with their parents and even grandparents, in joint family. So we didn't want them to be infected in anyway. Then, even parents didn't want their kids to be infected. Thirdly, a total lockdown of university, if the case burdened increased was mandated by the government, which would bring in massive losses. We maintain an animal house where animal needs daily care. There is a cryopreservation facility with LiqN2 and -80 freezers which needs constant monitoring. There are ongoing cell cultures which if stopped will be a big loss. So, it becomes really important to keep the wheel running by keeping the infection rate on campus in check. For this we had many rules imposing certain restriction, some of which made sense, while other sounded stupid and unnecessary.
Likewise, I think in many uni campuses across the globe controlling losses would have been a priority. If the university is kept running knowledge can be given out 3 years later when everything is under control, but if it faced losses the loss of knowledge we can gain will be delayed by a decade. So that has to be considered. While it may not have worked well for everyone but classes can run online.