Covaxin - Catabatic (Page 2)

Where the atmanirbharta in spine?

Oct 22, 2021 2 min read

Truth be told, I didn't expect CSIR chief Shekhar Mande could be so disingenuous. "India didn't have to depend on western countries," he says. What is this abject refusal to thank ot…

Bharat Biotech gets 1/10 for tweet

Jun 15, 2021 3 min read

Science Bharat Biotech Central Drug Standards Control Organisation Covaxin Drug Controller General of India Food and Drug Administration gatekeeping patriarchy phase 3 clinical trials scientific journals scientific knowledge scientific publishing

If I had been Bharat Biotech's teacher and "Where is your data?" had been an examination question, Bharat Biotech would have received 1 out of 10 marks. The correct answer to where is…

Magic bridges

Mar 2, 2021 4 min read

Analysis Science anti-patterns completeness Covaxin COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19 vaccines Covishield Dr House faith free and informed consent hard coding imaginary numbers knowledge

The last two episodes of the second season of House, the TV series starring Hugh Laurie as a misanthropic doctor at a facility in Princeton, have been playing on my mind off and on during the COVID-19…

What the DNA Bill needs

Feb 5, 2021 6 min read

Op-eds Science Covaxin COVID-19 vaccines Covishield crime scene investigation DNA Bill forensic science jagatguru complex Jairam Ramesh mitochondrial DNA nuclear DNA scientific evidence two-finger test

The following article has been published in The Wire, but since it began as a blog post and because I haven't published anything else in a while, I'm using it here as well. The Parliamentary…

Pandemic: Science > politics?

Jan 19, 2021 5 min read

Analysis Op-eds Science Central Drug Standards Control Organisation Covaxin COVID-19 pandemic Covishield criminal negligence democracy middle class Prime Minister Narendra Modi scientism Tamil Nadu elections West Bengal elections

By Mukunth and Madhusudhan Raman Former Union health secretary K. Sujatha Rao had a great piece in The Indian Express on January 14, whose takeaway she summarised in the following line: Science, evi…

India's missing research papers

Aug 9, 2020 2 min read

Science Bharat Biotech Biocon Covaxin COVID-19 COVID-19 epidemic COVID-19 pandemic ELISA test kit favipiravir hydroxychloroquine Indian Council of Medical Research Itolizumab novel coronavirus peer review preprint papers remdesivir science academies science by press release seroprevalence survey Tata Institute of Fundamental Research tocilizumab Zydus Cadila

If you're looking for a quantification (although you shouldn't) of the extent to which science is being conducted by press releases in India at the moment, consider the following list of studi…