A lookback at the whistleblower doctor who sounded the alarm on the virus to a comparison between women and men world leaders' handling of the pandemic, a cardiac surgeon and public health enthusiast spoke on the past, present and future of Covid-19 at Calcutta Club on Wednesday.

“Is the worst over?” a talk by Kunal Sarkar, partnered by The Telegraph, was the “first awareness talk” at the club in the wake of Covid-19.

Excerpts from the session.

Hero

Sarkar paid tributes to Li Wenliang, the Chinese ophthalmologist said to have been the first medical professional to sound the alarm on the coronavirus weeks before he contracted the illness and died. "He is an absolute hero," Sarkar said, calling out the Chinese government for "suppressing information for two months”.

Flight mode

Sarkar said planes propelled the journey of the disease from an epidemic to a pandemic. “The past pandemics spread through physical movement of people. The coronavirus spread through flights,” he said.

He spoke how around 30 lakh people flew into India through Mumbai in the week before flights were suspended. "Going by the then prevalent infectivity rate, we let around six lakh potential infections into the country," he said.

Women leaders

Pitting the likes of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and German Chancellor Angela Merkel against US and Brazilian Presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolosonaro and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sarkar said “countries led by women have done much better in handling the virus compared to countries with similar characteristics led by men”

Success story

The “restrained” Durga Puja celebrations in Calcutta was an “exemplary success story” in the fight against the virus, said Sarkar.

Future

“If the worst is to be over, we have to be at our best," said Sarkar. India, he suggested, was in a reasonably better position because unlike other countries, the “first wave here lasted some seven months”. The vaccination needs to speed up, he said.