Food companies and their misleading labels

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Food is for nutrition and to provide the body with energy and vital nutrients. Names of foods help us to know what the likely ingredients might be in it. But often, we notice that food names are misleading. They can fool a person into buying only to realize that it did not meet their expectations and imagination. For instance, take the example of samosa. An ideal samosa is refined wheat flour (maida) wrap with mashed potatoes and boiled peas inside. And when we say paneer samosa (cottage cheese stuffed fried dumplings), the picture that comes to our mind is of a wrap of refined wheat flour dough with paneer inside. But to your disappointment, you will find that these samosas are nothing but the normal samosas with mashed potatoes with or without boiled peas and just 1 small piece of cottage cheese at one corner!!! If we talk about rusks, most of these are made of refined wheat flour or maida which is not healthy. Maida is stripped of all the vital nutrients such as fiber, vitamins,
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Immunity passports concerns medical fraternity and rights groups: The medical and ethical reasons against it

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 There are talks in the USA, the UK, and in European nations that they would introduce COVID-19 immunity passports for travel to these nations. These are digital passports that are proofs that one has been vaccinated against COVID-19. But this concept and thinking has worried health experts and right group people. 

COVID-19 pandemic and the world 

COVID-19 virus started in Wuhan in China and has engulfed the world. The pandemic is seeing second and third waves and the USA, the UK, and the European Nations are currently in the grips of it. The cases are surging in these developed nations of the world and they are considering start of COVID-19 immunity passports. They plan to introduce these digital passports in order to ensure that those who travel to and from their countries are vaccinated against COVID-19. 

But this political move has upset the health experts and rights groups. These nations believe that introduction of such a passport might help their nations to recover from the onslaught of the virus on their economy. Once this comes in, they want to slowly relax all the public health precautions in place for the pandemic. They want it to be used for travel abroad and also in bars and restaurants. 

The weakened and badly-hit aviation industry is pushing the government to quickly put into practice this immunity passport system. 

President of the USA, Joe Biden has outlined a 200 page national coronavirus pandemic strategy and that includes the directive to assess the feasibility of a coronavirus passport. 

Immunity passports (Source: BBC) 

Immunity and coronavirus : Full details here! 

Boris Johnson of the UK has also ordered a review of such passports for international travel. 

The European Council is also meeting for discussion on these digital passports for movement across the 27 countries of the EU. IATA is also looking to have these passports on board before travel. They have called it the IATA Travel Pass. 

But why is this step not medically recommended? Why are the rights groups concerned on this politically-motivated policy of the government? 

Rethinking urged... 

As the developed and other nations are contemplating introduction of such digital passports to prove the COVID-19 vaccination status, public health officials and civil liberty organizations are not happy. One of the reasons for concern is that these passports would give people a false sense of security. Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London states: 

"I can see that they might be useful in the longer term, but I have several concerns about them being considered at this point in time when I think the scientific evidence doesn't support them. And there are lots of ethical concerns about them that I think are legitimate," 

There is not enough evidence currently to say that all those who hold immunity passports are protected against the virus and are not of risk to others. There is the added problem of coronavirus variants in the UK, Brazil, South Africa and other nations and one is not sure yet whether the COVID-19 vaccines are effective against them or not. WHO is not in favour of vaccine passports yet. In its statement, it said: 

"There are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission and limited availability of vaccines." 

The UN Health Agency also said: 

"There are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission and limited availability of vaccines." 

Science in Emergencies Tasking: Covid-19 (SET-C) group at the Royal Society cited 12 issues in such passport implementation. They stated that the introduction has to meet the following criteria: accommodate for the differences between vaccines in their effectiveness and also changes in their efficacy against new and emerging Covid variants, it should be internationally standardized, it should be secure as regards the personal data, it should meet legal standards and also meet ethical standards. 

The ethical issues 

There are many countries of the world which have yet been unable to procure the vaccines. And hence implementing a compulsory immunity passport for travel would be a discrimination against these populations. Liberty of the UK said: 

"These so-called passports claim they would ensure those who can prove they have coronavirus immunity can start to return to normal life. Which raises the question — what happens to everyone else?" 

It will not be until 2024 that all people of the world would have access to COVID-19 vaccination. The organization added: 

"Countless suggestions for immunity passports have circulated. Some suggest their use would be limited to international travel — others are less specific. Meanwhile a variety of technologies have been floated, from QR codes to apps or even physical cards," 

"One thing every suggestion has missed is that it's impossible to have immunity passports which do not result in human rights abuses." 

The British democracy and rights group Big Brother Watch also said that privacy and free movement of people would be jeopardized with this vaccine passport introduction. Professor Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford opined: 

"We need a broader discussion about multiple aspects of a vaccine passport, from the science of immunity through to data privacy, technical challenges and the ethics and legality of how it might be used," 




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