Global Bihari columnist Dr Satish K Gupta’s book ‘Journey of Covid in India-A doctor’s perspective‘ is receiving accolades worldwide. The latest feather in the cap of the book is the approval it received from the United Nations headquarters, Geneva. While releasing the review Director Communications and Global Advocacy, UNAIDS, M. Mahalingam writes: “Dr Gupta’s book portrays the journey of a grassroots doctor combating the COVID-19 pandemic in India and his quest to provide evidence-based information to his peers as the epidemic took rapid twists and turns in the last two years…”
He further goes on to describe the book as “A part history- part reference book, this book is a testament to the hard work of frontline workers to grapple with a mercurial virus and evolving science in a quest to save lives”.
The book is in fact first of its kind serving as a reference for fellow doctors. The information in the book clarifies many doubts of the public and physicians.
“Daily morning Covid Updates by Dr S K Gupta served as living guidelines for doctors in India and abroad and helped in providing the best treatment to millions of patients,” Dr Gautam Singh, President Indian Medical Association, East Delhi, said.
“His daily morning updates were awaited like morning 7 am newspaper. He provided updated scientific information which could be relied upon precisely in the plethora of information causing confusion during the pandemic” according to Dr Harish Gupta, a member of the National Medical Commission of the Government of India.
Dr Gupta describes this journey from Delhi’s Suburb to UN headquarters, as a humble journey of doctors riding over the back of the Covid virus.
Not long back when a new virus from Wuhan started making news, and the news started shaking nerves and the doctors were besieged with the responsibility to save mankind, a thought flashed in my mind… if we need to fight this virus we need to understand it, only then we will be able to save the people.
“That’s where I started reading about the contagion, its characteristics, spread strengths weaknesses and ways to protect ourselves and our patients. Being a low average profile doctor from a suburb of East Delhi I used to be a bit shy in the beginning. But somehow broke the jinx and shared updates in some groups on WhatsApp among physicians.
All the doctors and colleagues, seniors and juniors though initially not very attentive towards information being shared, slowly started developing interest and started requesting reprints. Since there was no numbering in updates it became difficult to pinpoint the information being requested. So decided to number the updates in October 2020.
Friends found them useful and started sharing them in their secondary WhatsApp groups in various medical colleges. When the archive grew it was also decided to upload the daily update on the Facebook page so that larger numbers of people can download the required information at their convenience.
Slowly it started to become a daily morning news column being eagerly awaited at 8.30 am.
More and more people joined and liked the updates, maybe because they were up-to-date, relevant and to the point. All efforts were made to make the presentation readable in 2 to 3 minutes with important points highlighted. Moreover, the updates were full of desired and latest information laced with a positive attitude while supplemented with precautionary advice.
The best part was that they came from a doctor who could understand what has been going on in the minds of those treating the patients in hospitals. Updated information was from highly reliable scientific resources compiled with utmost caution and without an iota of personal bias. Doctors found them handy among the chaos and confusion. Many admitted having used them as reference notes while treating their patients all over Delhi, other states of India and later in many other countries also. Such feedback was highly encouraging but simultaneously multiplied the responsibility manifold to portray the correct and true picture in a soothing frame.
– global bihari bureau
Congratulations to Dr SK Gupta and the Global Bihari team!
👌👌 congratulations
Thank you
Great achievement indeed