US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy says he lost 10 family members to Covid
urges Americans to shed vaccine hesitancy
Washington: US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has revealed that he lost as many as 10 family members, both here and in India, to the COVID-19 pandemic, making a strong case for Americans to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the deadly virus.
Launching a campaign against misinformation, the top Indian-American physician urged people to raise the bar for sharing health information by checking sources before they share it with others to ensure that the information is backed by credible scientific sources.
So far, 160 million Americans have been vaccinated, Murthy said, adding that is all good news.
But we are not out of the woods yet. Millions of Americans are still not protected against COVID-19, and we are seeing more infections among those who are unvaccinated, he said at a White House briefing on Thursday.
On a personal note, it's painful for me to know that nearly every death we are seeing now from COVID-19 could have been prevented," 44-year-old Murthy, who is occupying the position for the second time.
"I say that as someone who has lost 10 family members to COVID-19 and who wishes each and every day that they had had the opportunity to get vaccinated, Murthy said.
I see that also as a concerned father of two young children who aren't yet eligible for the vaccine, but I know that our kids are depending on all of us to get vaccinated to shield them from this virus, he added.
Every week, I talk to doctors and nurses across the country who are burning out as they care for more and more patients with COVID-19 who never got vaccinated, all too often because they were misled by misinformation, he said.
In May, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 64 per cent of American adults have taken or want a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible, 15 per cent will wait and see, and 19 per cent will either definitely not get one or only get one if it is required.
We must confront misinformation as a nation. Every one of us has the power and the responsibility to make a difference in this fight. Lives are depending on it, said the top American doctor.
He cautioned against sharing misinformation.
As we say in the advisory, if you're not sure, don't share. Second, we're asking health organisations to proactively address misinformation with their patients. Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics is announcing an educational campaign to help parents navigate online health information. I'm encouraged to see this commitment. And again, this is just the beginning, he said.
Asking educational institutions to help improve health information literacy, he said the administration is asking technology companies to operate with greater transparency and accountability.
We're asking them to monitor misinformation more closely. We're asking them to consistently take action against misinformation super spreaders on their platforms, he said.
Raised in Miami, Dr Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard, his masters in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine.
The US has the highest coronavirus case tally in the world at more than 33,974,200 and the highest death toll at over 608,300.
Roughly 48.5 per cent of Americans are vaccinated. However, the US has missed benchmarks set by the Biden administration. The country failed to meet the goal of having 70 per cent of adult Americans with at least one shot by July 4.
Demand for vaccines has also been slowing in the country, while daily infections have doubled in the past few weeks, with an average of roughly 24,000 cases per day, according to NBC News.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
