In 2020 March, when the sudden lockdown was imposed, one thing that was on every TV channel was the Tablighi Jamaat. No one knew about Tablighi Jamaat and that they were holding a meeting in Nizamuddin till then. But overnight the vilification, the name-calling, and the targeting of Muslims across the country as super spreaders was taken over by TV debates. Instead of spreading awareness, the media chose to stigmatise a section of the population. It hampered community outreach and communicating effectively. For this episode, Suno India's editor-in-chief DVL Padma Priya spoke to Ashima Mandla ..read more

In this episode of Talking Right, Suno India's editor-in-chief DVL Padma reported over the course of the pandemic, we bring to you a conversation with Dr Yogesh Kalkonde, a renowned public health researcher. Dr Kalkonde works for SEARCH, Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health. He primarily works in the rural part of India. See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information ..read more

In this episode, Suno India editor-in-chief DVL Padma Priya spoke with Dr Mittali Sethi, an IAS officer from the 2017 batch. When the lockdown was imposed Dr Sethi was posted as the Project Officer for the integrated tribal development project (ITDP) in Dharni village,  in Melghat of Maharashtra’s Amravati region. This became the first village to reach 100 % vaccination status when the vaccine was rolled out for the above 45 years old population. She shared the strategies she employed to spread awareness about covid, myth busts about the disease, and increase the uptake of vaccination. Dr ..read more

his episode sets the context about why it is important to communicate well during a pandemic like COVID-19 and features discussions between Suno India editor-in-chief DVL Padma Priya and Prof Anant Bhan, a researcher in Global health, bioethics, and health policy who works for a not-for-profit health policy organisation Sangath and also Dr. Usha Raman, professor at the Department of Communications at the University of Hyderabad. This series has been made possible by a grant from the Thakur Family Foundation. Resources: India readies itself to address the threat of pandemic influenza India’s ..read more

This is the last reported episode in season 2 of Gasping for Breath. In this episode, Suno India’s Menaka Rao has an extended chat with Girish Pasupathy, a software engineer from Coimbatore who is living with Long Covid after nearly a year of sickness. Girish has changed his life and outlook towards the disease and disability over a period of time. He is learning to live with long covid and has learned to advocate for himself  See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information ..read more

In this episode of the Gasping for Breath. In this episode, we discuss how long covid affects your work life. Students suffering from long covid have had to delay giving competitive exams for instance. We spoke to people who missed out on opportunities, took much less work or had to take time off work.  References Guidance on “Long COVID” as a Disability Under the ADA, Section | HHS.gov Sickness and absence because of long COVID: Long COVID – advice for employers and employees - Acas New data shows long Covid is keeping as many as 4 million people out of work See sunoindia.in/privacy-poli ..read more

In this episode of Gasping for Breath season 2, we raise a question- Is Long Covid a disability? In 2021, the Americans with Disabilities Act recognised Long Covid as a disability.  In June, a tribunal in the UK recognised long covid as a disability. This case was filed by a man suffering from Long covid who was sacked from his job and wanted permission to sue his employer.  So in this episode, Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to Amba Salelka, a lawyer working on disability rights and implementation of Convention of Rights of Persons with Disability. She spoke about how people with long ..read more

This episode of Gasping for Breath is an attempt to understand Long Covid from the scientific community. We try to understand what is known about Long covid, what are its different manifestations, what are its possible causes and what are the possible ways to manage the disease. This episode features Dr Ashwin Rajenesh and Dr Sarath Menon from Kerala and Dr Asad Khan from the UK. References A clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition by a Delphi consensus, 6 October 2021 Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact http://www.euro-me.org ..read more

In this episode, the survivors of Long Covid discuss their experiences with doctors. Most of them have been gaslighted by the medical fraternity. Medical gaslighting makes patients question their own experiences and make them wonder if they are legitimate.  In this episode, Suno India’s Padma Priya DVL describes her journey of simply trying to get a diagnosis for her condition. Joining her are Girish, Chinmay, and Sourya from the previous episodes.  See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information ..read more

The second season of Gasping for Breath is about the people who live with Long Covid.  About 22 months after the pandemic began, in October 2021, the World Health Organisation defined what they called Post Covid condition or what people living with the condition call Long Covid. A recent study by the Institute of Health Metrics and evaluation which is still in the preprint stage has estimated that there are 144.7 million people suffering from Long Covid globally in 2020 and 2021. The same study estimated that about four crore people suffer from long covid in India. These people have sympt ..read more