Anand Mahindra is all praise for cuddle curtains, terms it a 'life-changing' invention

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has always been appreciative of simple hacks and innovations that make life simpler. This time, a makeshift hugging device has caught his fancy, which could prove helpful in a post-pandemic world.

A 10-year-old from California had built this device using plastic curtains to let her grandparents enjoy a warm embrace without violating social distancing norms or exposing them to the deadly virus.

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The video of the "cuddle curtain" being introduced to the elderly couple at their residential garden had gone viral and won much praise. Mahindra too thought it to be a 'life-changing' invention and went on to dub it as important as the coronavirus vaccine.

He shared the video clip from his Twitter handle on May 19 to laud the simplicity of the device, stating it took no Nobel prize winner to come up with an idea that could bring friends and family together again.

It didn’t take a Nobel prize winner to create this device. But to the elderly, who have been missing the embrace of their families, this invention will rank as a life-changing one... As important as the vaccine we’re all waiting for... pic.twitter.com/V6V0TxnGY9

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A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

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Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 19, 2020