Money Market, Former Member of Access to Justice Fund Supreme Court of Pakistan
Outside grocery stores everywhere in Pakistan and particularly in Karachi, remarkable scenes are unfolding since March 2020. Instead of rushing home after shopping to avoid being exposed to corona virus, many Pakistanis are pausing outside to offer food, money or other charity to the many people on the street with no “place” to shelter-in-place. These generous offers are often accompanied with a request to the recipient: “Pray that [the corona virus] ends soon.”
Like many nations, Pakistan has imposed strict containment measures in response to the global corona virus pandemic, including closing schools, banning public gatherings and shuttering all businesses that don’t sell groceries or medicine. As Pakistan imposes stricter lockdown measures, many daily wage workers are unable to work, earn and eat amid the pandemic, Pakistanis are bonding together to assist the less fortunate in a unique and inspiring way. Specifically, many are offering zakat, the charity tax, for daily wage earners who have no paid leave, health insurance or financial safety net.
While many around the world are focused on physical cleanliness during the corona virus outbreak, many of us depends on zakat and other donations for a spiritual cleansing, quoting the popular expression, “Paisa haath ki meil hai” (Money is like the dirt on one’s hands). It is believed that Zakat and donations removes impurities from the wealth.
Volunteer organizations have been busy distributing surplus food from restaurants and raashan packets to those in need.
According to a recent government survey, Pakistani banks collected Rs 7,377,678,000 in zakat from the population in 2018-2019. But because a lot of zakat is given by Pakistanis directly to those in need and therefore not documented, the real figure is likely much higher.
This is the case currently, as many households are still paying the salaries of domestic help, despite not calling them in to work to reduce the potential for spreading the virus.
But how this corona Virus epidemic can get its treatment through drugs and vaccines and with better medical facilities, in this area Pakistan is looking not so active so far, whereas some countries in the world are actively working on it.
Since corona virus was first discovered as the causative agent of COVID-19, scientists have been racing in the world to get a better understanding of the virus’ genetic makeup and unravel how to effectively treat infections. There’s no cure and medical specialists can only treat the symptoms of the disease.
Developing new vaccines would take time, and they must be rigorously tested and confirmed safe via clinical trials before they can be routinely used in humans. However a vaccine is at least a year to 18 months away.
The most important ingredient part of vaccine is the antigen. This is the part of the vaccine the body can recognize as foreign. Depending on the type of vaccine, an antigen could be molecules from viruses like a strand of DNA or a protein. It could instead be weakened versions of live viruses. For instance, the measles vaccine contains a weakened version of the measles virus. When a patient receives the measles vaccine, their immune system recognizes a protein present on the measles virus and learns to fight it off. A second important ingredient is the adjuvant. An adjuvant works to amplify the immune response to an antigen. Whether a vaccine contains an adjuvant depends on the type of vaccine even though we’re likely to see human trials start within the next month or two. In the US, Moderna’s Phase I clinical trials began on March 16 in collaboration with NIAID, the US National Institutes of Health and KPWHRI. It is the first testing in humans of the mRNA vaccine and will look to enroll a total of 45 healthy adult volunteers aged between 18 and 55 years.
Combining hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin has also been reported to have positive patient outcomes but many experts question its legitimacy. Hydroxychloroquine has also received an emergency use authorization by the FDA as of April 3; however there still remains a lot of questions about optimal doses and treatments.
In relation to COVID-19. Convalescent plasma” for patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections is also under trial. This form of therapy sees a fraction of the blood from recovered COVID-19 patients infused into sick patients’ bodies.
So good news is that both Pakistan and world are working in their own ways to get out of this epidemic and sooner they would reach to that point.