AMN/ Chennai
A 400 page book on Covid 19 titled “No Time to Hide” – COVID 19, 2nd edition was launched today worldwide by Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Principal Secretary to Tamil Nadu government in Chennai.
The book, containing research articles from prestigious publications globally and within India with FAQs on the pandemic aggregated by the author Ashok Nilakantan aka TN Ashok, former Editor (Economics) of premier wire service PTI, was launched at the hands of Dr. J Radhakrishnan IAS, Principal Secretary to government of Tamil Nadu, who is also the food secretary. The book has been published by Notion Press of Chennai, Tamil Nadu INDIA. The book is to go for sale in 150 countries and 3500 retail outlets in India.
Dr. Radhakrishnan was in the forefront last year as the Health Secretary who faced innumerable challenges in the containment and spread of the disease in the southern state. He is one among the efficient leading figures in the public administrators in the country who burnt the midnight oil to extend public health care to citizens and help contain the disease spread.
The book chronicles the history of SARS COV2 virus from its outbreak in Hubei province of China, how it became an endemic and quickly travelled across the globe as a pandemic as declared by the WHO in January 2020.
Special highlights of the book are how the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the scourge head on and contained it through several socio-cultural and economic measures. India’s world record in getting one billion of its populations vaccinated against the virus and extraordinary gesture in supplying vaccines and other medical facilities and support to over 150 countries form the highlights of the book. Canada, Australia and Sri Lanka were special beneficiaries including USA which ordered the first batch of curative medicines from India.
The special feature of the 2nd edition is the elaborate Timelines drawn by the author on how the worst affected countries met the challenges day to day from the onset of the disease in 2019-20 to 2022, containment through lock downs and shutdowns of businesses and roll out of vaccines. There are special chapters on how China launched Zero Tolerance for COVID after the 2nd wave and sub variants such as the Omicron BA, BA3 (that caused maximum hospitalizations, and the launch of the 1st booster and the 2nd booster shots by Pfizer.
Launching the 2nd edition of the book, Dr Radhakrishnan appreciated the research and diligence of the author in compiling massive and voluminous up to date data and statistics on the disease and detailed case studies on how the world affected countries such as USA, India, China, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France had come to grips with the problem. The disease now ranks the 2nd after the Spanish Flu that broke out in 1928 to 30 during the depression which claimed 5 million lives and infecting 50 million people.
Covid 19 has between 2019 to 2022 claimed 5 million lives and affected 50 million people, out of which more than 80 to 90 % of the population have recovered due to vaccines.
Last year, the 1st international edition of the book No Time to Hide Covid 19 was presented to the Vice President Dr Venkaiah Naidu signifying Notion Press global launch of the book. The book is authored by Ashok Nilakantan, former Editor (Economics) of PTI, Executive Editor of Corporate Tycoons, Pune – New Delhi and Contributor to IANS at Washington and New York.
Says Ashok Nilakantan “I have not done anything new, but only taken efforts to make available all available information on the SARS COV 2 virus, its outbreak in Hubei in China and how that country acted swiftly in containing the disease through the strictest of protocols later followed by India and other nations. Some of the worst affected countries such as USA, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia and China had their health care systems virtually crippled. Case studies of these countries are detailed in the book.
At the last count as on June 2022, COVID 19 and its various variants such as Delta and Omicron BA04 and BA05 had infected nearly 4.50 million people leaving 4 lakh dead despite the best of health care. For further details contact: The Author TN Ashok or Ashok Nilakantan on