The world is looking at India for post-COVID19 guidance

The other day I had a video call with a group of distributors of our company in the US and Europe. Before we discussed business we also talked a bit about how things are in their respective countries. I immediately noticed that COVID19 is still very high on their list of worries. But what probably struck me the most is the fact that people were asking me how we in India had managed to get the whole COVID19 situation under control. Because they all had this feeling that India did a very good job containing the pandemic and was able to recover very quickly from the medical situation caused by the virus.

So I told them we have a very good post-COVID19 plan in place. For example we still use mouth masks as often as we can – both inside public areas and outside. Not just to protect ourselves from others, but quite the opposite: we want to protect others from us. Because we might have become infected without knowing it.

People in the call found that very interesting. Because if we want to protect others from us potentially being contaminated we also have to be very sure we are not infected. And if we are, we have to quarantine ourselves and get medical help. “So how do you check yourselves?”, they asked. 

I explained to them that fever is actually a very important early warning signal that a person might have been infected. So I personally check my own temperature and the temperature of my wife and my little baby girl several times a day. At least twice daily. And if anyone is not feeling so well, we always start measuring our body temperature even more often. The other day our daughter complained about feeling like she had the flu and felt a bit warm we even started taking her temperature every 30 minutes. Just to be sure.

Before we switched to our business discussion during the call someone asked how we measure the temperature of our daughter. Because they themselves have an ear thermometer and another person in the call said they were still using a rectal thermometer. Not really pleasant thermometers if you want to take someone’s temperature every half hour. So I explained to them that we are using a Temporal Artery Thermometer. Which is – quite ironic actually – a US designed and manufactured thermometer. It is a very easy to use and also non-invasive thermometer. To perform a very accurate measurement all you have to do is gently swipe the thermometer across the forehead of yourself or your child. That is all it takes to measure temperature. You can even do that while your kid or your wife is asleep. Very easy to do and not intimidating to even the youngest kids.