Doctors says not to panic as dead bodies do not Cough or Sneeze
On sunday night in chennai, the friends and family of Dr Simon Hercules were data-faced with violence and protests as they tried to bury the doctor who died of COVID-19. An unfortunate mix of fear, panic and ignorance had led the people who lived around the cemetery to attack the doctor’s family and friends, raising serious concerns that information around COVID-19 wasn’t being communicated properly to citizens. And around the same time that Dr Simon’s burial was disrupted, the family of a 20-year-old man in Erode’s Nambiyur panchayat Town data-faced a similar, heartbreaking situation.
Mohammed Bilal, a 20-year-old with a congenital disability, a resident of Nambiyur, passed away due to liver failure on Sunday. Bilal suffered from health issues since he was a child, and on saturday, he developed breathing difficulties and was rushed to a private hospital nearby. The doctors there had said that he needed additional care, and the family then took him to the Erode government Hospital. “The doctor kept him under observation at the ICU for a day. Once his conditions improved, he was shifted to the normal ward around 12 noon on Sunday. But within an hour Bilal developed breathing difficulties and succumbed,” says Bilal’s uncle, Mohammad Shahjahan.
Dr Simon Hercules in Chennai; Bilal in Erode. A man who died of COVID-19, and a man who’s death had nothing to do with the disease. A complete denial of empathy driven by blind fear in two cases however, critics have questioned the role of the government in creating awareness even more, because they were not the first ones to data-face this situation. Doctors meanwhile are urging people to understand that dead people cannot spread COVID-19, and there is no reason to worry as long as all safety precautions are taken. v Ramasubramanian, Infectious Disease Specialist in chennai at Apollo Hospitals says, “There is 0% chance of spread of infection from a dead person. The dead person will not sneeze or cough to act as a carrier of the virus.”Stating that the virus can stay active only for a few minutes in the body".