IMA vs Ramdev: Why what's good or bad for goose should be good or bad for gander

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*
Baba Ramdev and his associate Balkrishna faced the wrath of the Supreme Court for their propaganda about their Ayurvedic products and belittling mainstream medicine. Baba Ramdev had to apologize in court. His apology was not accepted and he may face the contempt of court with harsher punishment. The Supreme Court acted on a public interest litigation (PIL) moved by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
The ethos of modern medical practice is evidence based medicine (EBM) and one should welcome censure against those who make claims unsupported with evidence. However, these strictures should be applicable to all without favor or prejudice.
The pandemic unleashed all types of charlatans promoting their remedies to curb the virus, some rustic, others suave. In a viral infection with 99.9% survival rate till the age of 69 years it would be impossible to appraise which remedy or which intervention worked and which didn’t. But some measures certainly caused much harm to humanity without any benefit and at huge economic cost.
Among these are “physical distancing” and “lockdowns.” Both these drastic draconian measures were implemented in almost all countries without any evidence of their efficacies. Even the great Anthony Fauci who once remarked that if you criticize him, you criticize science, admitted that they just arbitrarily “made up” the six feet distance recommended for “physical distancing!”
There was intense propaganda to maintain “physical distancing” and not to “step out of the house” including caller tunes and promotion by celebrities to observe these unscientific measures which ruined businesses and livelihoods.
The Covid-19 vaccines were also promoted as being effective and safe, the Drug Controller General of India, Dr V G Somani going to the extent of saying that they are 110% safe! It later turned out that at the population level vaccines had little impact in checking transmission and in fact in many countries both cases and deaths from Covid-19 peaked after rollout of mass vaccination.
The safety concerns of the Covid-19 vaccines are also alarming with cumulative evidence ranging from myocarditis to brain strokes. And the Covid-19 vaccines were promoted with much propaganda and “misinformation” by responsible authorities like the DCGI (who called them 110% safe), movie stars and other celebrities!
Justice demands that what is good (or bad) for the goose, should be good (or bad), for the gander. All the authorities and celebrities who promoted the unscientific and risky measures like lockdowns and mass vaccinations with experimental vaccines should also be held accountable and tried in a fair manner without fear, favor or prejudice.
There are sporadic demands across the globe for such accountability. The Australian parliament has approached Indian origin UK cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra to give evidence on excess deaths. Dr Malhotra, an eminent cardiologist, has been raising an alarm over myocarditis and other heart conditions associated with the Covid-19 vaccine for some time.
During a visit to India last year, Dr Malhotra also raised concerns about the adverse effects of the Covishield vaccine which was used extensively in the country’s mass vaccination drive. He had cautioned that the Covishield vaccine had more frequent serious adverse events compared to the mRNA vaccines and for this reason its use in the UK and many other countries was restricted.

Another Indian origin expert, Prof Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine and Health Economics at Stanford University had advised the Indian policy makers in Jan 2021 before the mass vaccination rollout that our population had natural immunity and vaccinating them at mass scale will provide no benefit and some harm.
An extreme example is that of British parliamentarian Andrew Bridgen. In a bizarre turn of events Andrew Bridgen has called for maximum punishment for the great and honorable philanthropist Bill Gates and other figures for their role in crimes against humanity during the pandemic! He made this sensational demand during a recent parliamentary session in Westminster leaving all stunned.
Bridgen strongly recommended for a parliamentary debate on crimes against humanity and appropriate penalties for those who colluded, perpetuated and covered up atrocities against the citizens of the world on the pretext of the pandemic.
“Heads of governments around the world and others below them have engaged in what is tantamount to treason against the public,” Bridgen declared. Taking his concerns beyond the parliament Bridgen lodged a police complaint for an enquiry into the acts of omissions and commissions during the pandemic.
World renowned virologist, Dr Sucharit Bhakdi, gave a presentation to the German parliament a few months ago on the profiteering from the Covid-19 vaccines and the potential harms from them.

According to him:
“…the vaccines turned out to be the greatest blessing for the money and the world’s elites, for the pharmaceutical industry and politics. They could pursue their own interests, under the slogan, ‘everything for public health,’ ‘everything for the welfare of the general public.’ To achieve this goal, they took the help of the WHO. This is a non-democratically nominated group of people, a private association that is on a mission of power grab over 190 member countries by way of the WHO pandemic accord along with the amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR).”
Dr Bhakdi also presented the evidence associating the vaccines with sudden deaths and heart damage summing up with these strong words, “Anyone who claims that vaccination rarely causes serious side effects is either incredibly ignorant or infinitely evil.”
Compared to such evil, if established by honest inquiry, Baba Ramdev’s indiscretions may pale into insignificance. Baba Ramdev’s product “Coronil” a tri-herbal formulation did undergo tests for efficacy against the novel coronavirus and the results were published in a peer reviewed journal. And so far there are no reports of adverse events from Coronil.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the Covid-19 vaccines. While Baba Ramdev may have gone overboard and exceeded his brief in criticizing mainstream medicine, he at least met the first principle of medical ethics, i.e. “first do no harm.”
The Supreme Court has been harsh on Baba Ramdev. Justice demands that such injunctions should also be passed on others who have breached medical ethics and indulged in propaganda for profit or politics.
IMA should be non-partisan and call for thorough investigations on all the acts of omission and commissions by all players whether of mainstream or alternative systems of medicine.
What is good (or bad) for the goose should be good (or bad) for the gander.
---
*Renowned epidemiologist, currently is a professor at a Medical College in Pune, India. Having served as an epidemiologist in the armed forces for over two decades, he recently ranked in Stanford University’s list of the world’s top 2% scientists. He has penned the book, “Covid-19 Pandemic: A Third Eye” and has delivered keynote addresses in national and international forums