Author: akshay
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Double Standards – Patanjali vs Glenmark; What is the Point of Ayurveda?
A couple of days back Glenmark made a press release about Favipiravir which made it sound like they have a “game-changer” and “magic bullet” (according to various media houses). This was based on little evidence about its benefit. There is virtually nothing in public domain that shows that Favipiravir is useful in COVID. CDSCO explicitly…
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Public Health Was Always Broken, You Are Just Noticing It Now
There is this nytimes article about how one pregnant lady who was also breathless couldn’t find appropriate care despite going to multiple hospitals. I find it nothing surprising. Our country’s public health system has never been able to provide appropriate care to people with medical emergencies (or for that matter, any health issue). Maybe now…
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Glenmark Lies About Favipiravir
I received from a friend a PDF which happened to be Glenmark’s press release about Favipiravir. The release is full of claims that make it sound like Favipiravir is a wonder drug that is going to solve COVID problems. It becomes my responsibility to refute some of these claims, considering how majority media outlets are…
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Is Feminism Brahmanism?
This post is an analysis on the points made in the transcript of a talk titled “Feminism is Brahmanism” (FiB) and the counter-points raised to it. I know that it is difficult to separate points made by a person from that person themselves. It is difficult to separate generalizations and personal attacks from solid arguments.…
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How Not Having a Computer Science Degree Makes Me a Good Programmer
I didn’t go to an engineering college. Looking back, I’m very glad that I didn’t. If I had gone to an engineering college in India, I would probably have dropped out very quickly. This post is not about how engineering colleges waste 880,350 years of India’s youth every year. But if anyone teaching in an…
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What is a “Normal” Human?
Under the JK Rowling tweet about “erasing the concept of sex“, I found an interesting article: You Can’t Be a Feminist Without Acknowledging Biological Sex. It brings up an interesting point: The existence of people born with Syndactyly, for example, does not mean that humans don’t normally have 10 fingers and 10 toes. I think…
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Do You Think All Human Beings Are Equal?
At the end of Srimathi Gopalakrishnan’s post titled “Sexism in Medicine : The Eternal Confusion and The Innocent Mistake” there is a link that goes to areyouafeminist.com *SPOILER ALERT*: Take the test, if you want to. There are only two questions on that site which tests whether you are a feminist. 1. Do you think…
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More Than a Word: Neo-Colonialism in Today’s Vocabulary. | BMJ Global Health blog
“Resource-limited settings” is a term that I’ve to now reconsider. I have used it in the past to talk about Vivekananda Memorial Hospital. But when I think about it from the perspective that this article brings, VMH was the most resource rich hospital I’ve seen. Sure, there may not have been a ventilator ICU or…
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How Many Genders Are There In Our Languages?
I stumbled on Trans 101 website today. The videos in there are literally the best I have seen in the past few weeks. I’m embedding the first video, but there are 6. Head over to the Trans 101 website for the rest. I learned a lot of things while watching the videos. Reading them all…
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“Risks” vs Risks
Decision making is almost always complicated by uncertainties. The more information that can provide context, the more stakeholders that are part of the decision, the better the chances of reaching a good decision. In the past few weeks, world leaders have had to make very difficult decisions. Lock down entire country? Put money into healthcare?…