Varsity Chancellor offers body for Covid research

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

The Indian Council of Medical Research, India’s apex health research body, has received a rare request in these times of a raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Chandigarh-based Zora Singh, 62, has sent a legal undertaking to the council offering his body for any kind of experiment to find a cure or prophylaxis for SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease.

Zora Singh, a medical doctor and Chancellor of Desh Bhagat University, Punjab, says he has weighed all risks involved in offering his live body for Covid-19 research and has legally undertaken to volunteer in any drug development or vaccine effort.

Singh has volunteered for Covid-19 research not just at home but also in the UK where he spent some years as a doctor before returning to Punjab to practice medicine in Shri Muktsar Sahib. While Singh has heard back from the UK authorities regarding his offer, he is yet to get reply from the ICMR.

“Covid-19 is a new disease and needs a lot of research. There is no clarity anywhere about the behaviour of the virus, which is fast involving various organs of the body. Being a medical doctor, I understand the urgency of research in times of a pandemic, which is exploding. I simply want to be of use for advancement of science towards the good of humankind. Of course it is up to the ICMR and researchers to see if I fit as a research subject,” Singh told The Tribune today.

An ICMR taskforce member on clinical research, meanwhile, said Singh’s request was praiseworthy considering it’s a challenge to recruit subjects for drug and vaccine trials and get informed consents from each participant.

“Healthy individuals can also be a part of trials to determine the efficacy of vaccines and study why some people are more prone to the contagion than others. Recruitment of subjects normally happens through investigators of drug and vaccine projects. The offer of Zora Singh will need examination by the ethical committee to see if he fits into any vaccine trial or immunology study,” said an ICMR drug development and vaccine research taskforce member.

As for Singh, he said he consulted his family about the offer and they disagreed until he put his foot down. “My mind is made up,” he says, citing Sikhism’s basic teaching, “Sarbat da bhala” (advancement of all).