When my father Giridhar Gamang, former Chief Minister, got re-infected even after taking the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine, I got shocked as I had thought he must have already developed antibodies (vaccinated 2nd dose on April 7). While getting his RTPCR test done I asked the sample collector to take samples for antibody test also. I still can’t figure out how & why it occurred to me to ask for antibody test.
On April 30, the results for both the tests came out. He was Covid positive and had developed zero antibodies. So, I immediately got him admitted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar. Out of curiosity, I started reading articles across newspapers, social media, views expressed by experts, WHO advisories and Union Ministry of Health guidelines. After my intensive research, it was safe for me to conclude that food eating habits play a major role in developing immunity (antibodies) to fight the virus.
My father is a teetotaler and a pure vegetarian and hates milk and milk products with an exception to sweets. He has been a diabetic for the last 13 years. He only used to eat rice, potato and lots of sugar, three things not advisable for diabetic persons which do not have any nutrition.
With this kind of food intake, his body didn’t have enough energy to develop antibodies to fight Covid-19 because all the energy was being used by the body to keep the organs safe from effects of diabetes. The Indian Government has been advising people to eat healthy and highly nutritious food consisting of green vegetables, milk and milk products, pulses, eggs, fish, fruits and dry fruits, etc. My father never eats all this. Our body’s needs are different according to the works we do and so do the calorie requirements.
Some foods give us strength to do physical activities but may not help boost our immune system. So, we need to eat different varieties of food for this. Some medical experts say alcohol reduces immunity to fight Covid. If it holds any truth, my father would have never been infected. When my mother got her 1st dose of Covid jab, she got swelling on the injected hand, fever for two days, body ache for 15 days and weakness for 24 days. Nothing such happened after her 2nd dose.
She constantly feared for getting infected. Seeing her go through this, my father started making fun of her by saying all her nutritious food eating habits were of no use and was a complete waste of money. On the other hand, my father didn’t even go through what mother went through even for a single minute. All the armchair doctors and medical experts had declared my father as the healthiest and strongest person in India and also concluded that coronavirus can never infect him; and that’s exactly where he stopped using the mask or didn’t wear mask properly which ultimately led to his infection.
After my 1st doe, I experienced pain on the injected hand on the fourth day and thereafter felt weakness five times on different days. In fact, I was suffering from weakness when I got vaccinated for the 2nd dose.
Apart from me and my parents, our cook, peon and driver stay at our home. It’s not because of corona but due to our necessity as politicians as we never know when we might need them. Tea never stops flowing as there are numerous visitors. My staffs also eat the same food as I do, I love eating non-veg; and prawns are my favourite. I eat a very balanced and a nutritious diet.
All of us got exposed to the coronavirus twice due to papa and, that too, in an indoor environment. We followed all the home isolation guidelines, but I believe our food habits also played a role in not getting us infected.
The important issue which I want you to know and the Central and State Governments to understand is that the vaccines may not be of any use if the people do not eat at least one nutritious meal a day and specially two meals if a person is diabetic. There are lakhs of cases of malnutrition across all the Indian States in different age groups; and I fear that the vaccine may not work for them and eventually lead to their deaths. There has been a lot of blame games due to shortage of vaccines and oxygen between the Centre and the States. It should end.
Immunities in a human body do not build in a single day; it takes time. Take the example of vaccine which take two doses and around 51 days to boost immunes or create antibodies. What the governments can do is ensure that the needy and BPL families get free nutritious food till time they get vaccinated and at least till the time they get their 2nd dose.