Dear Editor,Kant et al.[1] review shreds of epidemiological and environmental evidence associated with communicability of novel Coronavirus-causing pandemic since last year in June 2021 issue of the Journal. The authors sift through a large database of evidence to identify various sources of infection, fomites harboring the SARS-CoV-2, several body-fluids implicated in disease transmission, modes of transmission of the virus, effects of temperature and humidity on the rate of infection, and possible role of pollution in disease dynamics.Therein under a heading, ‘asymptomatic cases as major challenge for mitigation of pandemic,’ the writers underscore importance of testing and tracing asymptomatic cases to stop disease-transmission. Here they cite an example of a cruise ship Diamond Princess. They state that when the infection broke out aboard, more cases were found to be asymptomatic. Chris Baraniuk analyzes the lockdown there and later stated in a feature article a few weeks after the event, “It may seem obvious to say that a virus will spread more easily in confined spaces.”[2] Also, analysis of various superspreader events since then confirmed the finding. Event after event revealed that when several people got infected in a geography, common denominator was gathering in enclosed spaces. Hence, schools and colleges were closed to prevent the spread and we are witnessing emergence of a new generation C.[3]However, a lesson we need to learn by heart is that until the pandemic is over and given a choice, indoor meetings need to be avoided and when necessary, we’d meet outdoors. Also in their review, the authors raise a possibility of aerosol transmission (to be acknowledged) for (formulating) better containment strategies. Here, what we’d realize is that when details of the virus outbreak at the ship were studied by epidemiologists just a few weeks downstream, they actually made it a case study in aerosol transmission.[4]Ooi and Low[5] stated last year, on the basis of two detailed studies, that there was a strong evidence in favor of asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of the novel Coronavirus. When researchers closely looked into infection data of the Diamond Princess ship, they discovered that the emerging pattern can be explained only by this hypothesis. Eventually, to stop propagation of a wave of infection, diagnosis and isolation of cases have critical importance. Therefore, several points of what the authors write in the review have been defined by scrutiny of the disease outbreak in controlled atmosphere last year. We only need to revise its lessons frequently so as to avoid the next wave.In neoliberal economies we hire workers on- contract basis, don’t provide them benefit of sick- leaves when there is a genuine need to stay at home. Hence unwillingly and unwittingly they report at their duty every day and now we realize that this factor fueled the pandemic. Subsequently when we blame them for the explosion forgetting the wider picture of terms and conditions of the contractual job, we inflict injury on ourselves by violating laws of the mother- nature. When a worker is ill, providing her paid -leave is not only beneficial for her but for rest of the society as well.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.We accessed all the webpages during submission of this letter to the Editor.