As Omicron numbers rise in India, Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has 2 suggestions

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of tech company Zoho, came out with two suggestions for the country, in what he believes could save lives and livelihoods.

Moneycontrol News

December 17, 2021 / 17:22 IST

Omicron in India: “Let's not panic," Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu said.

With state after state reporting cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 every day, authorities are keeping a close eye on the situation and are reviewing the preparedness of the health infrastructure to prevent a third wave of the pandemic in India.

Over 100 cases of the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa, have been reported in India so far, with Delhi reporting ten new cases of the variant on Friday.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of tech company Zoho, came out with two suggestions for the country, in what he believes could save lives and livelihoods.

“With Omicron coming, here is my suggestion for India,” Vembu tweeted on Thursday.

“No more lock downs. They destroy the livelihood of too many people, particularly our poorer citizens,” he listed in this first point.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

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.

How many types of vaccines are there?

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.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

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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