Abstract
The COVID pandemic has made life tough for almost everyone, particularly for the medial professionals. For students of modern medicine, the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 was just history. The present generation of health-care workers rarely imagined that they would have to go through a situation when every day we would need newer strategies and evidence to act. We needed evidence related to every aspect of SARS-CoV-2, the transmission dynamics, as well as preventive and therapeutic interventions. The genomic sequence published early in the course of the pandemic enabled scientists to work on vaccine production. The scientific community, with the support of pharmaceutical industry, political administration, and many other stakeholders, succeeded in making vaccines available for use. Results of randomized controlled trials testing the effectiveness of different platforms such as the viral vector vaccines and messenger RNA vaccines were published in record time.
Being an RNA virus, the SARS-CoV-2 undergoes genetic variations frequently, as long as it gets the opportunity to circulate among humans. Omicron, which was reported to the World Health Organization on November 26, 2021, is the fifth variant of concern. The practice of evidence-based medicine has become essential for the existence of human species on earth. At this conjuncture, it is all the more important to address the social determinants of health. We require millions of doses of COVID vaccine to protect the lives of people, in whichever part of the world they live. Equity and justice in vaccine production and distribution will be one of the key factors which will determine the course of the pandemic.
During COVID times, health systems have been remodeled to meet the demands in COVID management. This is often at the expense of logistics, supplies, and human resource available in other areas of health care such as immunization, noncommunicable diseases, maternal and child health care, mental health, geriatric care, and cancer care. Strategies for the prevention, control, and management of other communicable diseases such as dengue, malaria, and tuberculosis also need to be relooked. Environmental and climate-related determinants of health will be crucial in the days to come.
In this evolving situation, evidence generated through robust methods in research is pivotal. The Indian Journal of Clinical Medicine transcends the boundaries of disciplines in clinical medicine and invites publications from all specialties. We look forward to promote quality research which addresses the clinical questions that we face today. The focus will be on the Indian context, with a global perspective.