CRPF personnel Lalit Mohan spent around 14 days in isolation at the Isolation Centre designated to him in Delhi. It came to his realization that he might have contracted the virus when he developed a mild fever. Throughout the illness, he had mild symptoms related to the virus. He said,“Rather than the virus killing you, many patients first fall prey to the constant and at times, fake news revolving around the virus.” Also, he kept ruminating over the fact that his 72-year old mother and 12-year-old son were also tested positive, and this impacted his mental health significantly, and he was under constant stress throughout isolation. “Stay calm, stay positive, and work extensively on your mental health” was the main advice he would like to give to the rest of the world. “Mental health and willingness are as important while fighting the virus as your physique”, said the officer. A notable fact was that all the people, whom he contacted in the 14 to 28 days before his diagnosis, tested negative. His wife and second son tested negative to the virus. However, they had to face a societal problem. The neighbours would start treating them weirdly and started advising everybody not to help them concerning their grocery supplies or other essentials. He expressed his concern for the judgemental and fault finding society and voiced that people should be empathetic, compassionate, and stop such apparent ostracization of the patients and their families. All of us would have listened to this message on our phone many times “We have to fight the disease, not its patients.” Yet, it is shameful and sorrowful on our part, as asociety to not pay heed and apply it to our lives. Thankfully, all of the three have been completely recovered from the disease and are busy back to their daily routine.

​ A doctor who previously working as a junior resident in the department of neurosurgery, BMHRC, Bhopal. I resigned in the first week of June 2020 to pursue post-graduation in Orthopedic Surgery in SAIMS, Indore.
This Covid-19 pandemic was unexpected, unprecedented and deadly in terms of manyaspects, be it health, economy or our social fabric for that matter. Our Prime Minister came on television to announce that people have to come out to their balconies and clap hands to show support for all the healthcare workers involved in fighting Covid-19, but a few days ago, when a neurologist in Chennai was denied a dignified funeral due to the stigma attached to the disease, I realised something within our social structure had changed,for the worse.
The common man tried to educate people about the know-how of the disease, how it spreads, how it can be countered using masks and sanitisers but personally I feel, the message got diluted like a Chinese whisper. A few of my friends who lived off-campus were denied entry into their apartment buildings. It felt like the era of untouchability was back. My colleagues have experienced their homes being barricaded or cordoned off due to fear that they might spread the infection. People need to stop believing whatever they see on news channels or read on WhatsApp and need to develop a scientific temperament. COVID-19 is a respiratory infection, anyone can catch it, there is no need to be afraid of the patient who had it.
Imagine people shooing you away socially, sharing your home photographs on social media, stopping groceries, milk and vegetable delivery to your house just because you have a cold. The social stigma attached to this will have to be combatted like the way the whole worldcame together to fight HIV. My only advice will be that we as healthcare professionals are the frontline soldiers in this war with this virus. If we get scared by obnoxious things created by our own people we protect we would have failed them. Remember a very apt slogan coined recently which says “fight the disease, not the patient"