Actress Pranitha Subhash has been working towards Covid relief work for a while now through her foundation. She has been arranging hospital beds, oxygen concentrators and amplifying medical requests. But things have taken a toll on her mental health too. “It’s so taxing and disturbing to hear Covid-related news everyday but these two years have been very crucial and have changed everyone’s lives,” she asserts.
Pranitha’s parents are both doctors. Ask her about how her experience has been different seeing her parents put themselves at risk every day and she responds, “My parents are doctors but they haven’t been doing Covid duties. Not all doctors in India are doing Covid duties, and the same is with our hospital.”
Pranitha goes on to inform that her parents are working towards treating Non-covid related medical issues. “We are not encouraging Covid patients to come as not all hospitals are allowed to take Covid responsibilities. It’s a big responsibility to have beds, oxygen support and everything ready for disposal. So, we have been treating all non-Covid related medical issues. But it’s still risky as many people who come to us don’t know what they have initially, so it does put my parents at risk,” she insists, adding that the thing that gives relief to her is that they are both vaccinated. “They were amongst the first people to get jabbed. They were like the human experiment for vaccination,” she quips.
Like any other concerned child, Pranitha also was concerned about her parents when they stepped out for work. “I tried to tell my parents not to go to work but they feel like it’s their duty, so now even I have given up. Now, I encourage them to go and even they have been encouraging me to help, like last year I wanted to go to the streets to distribute food to the needy and they supported me in that, after ensuring that I took all the precautions. This year I haven’t been able to do that as I am very scared to step out. So, everything and every help that I have provided this year has been through online,” she informs.
However, being a kid to two doctors, does it bother her seeing some people going about carelessly without following the norms? “You can’t really blame a certain group for being careless. Yesterday I saw the news of someone getting married on a flight and in a way, they could argue that since they were all from the same family, they were all safe. Covid that way has been very debatable. There have been people who have been confined to their homes and still got Covid, people who haven’t let their house help enter their home and still contracted the virus,” she points out.
Pranitha insists that Covid is a very strange disease and no one knows where it is coming from. “It seems like everyday there is a new guideline for it. Last April they said masks are not mandatory, then by June, they said it was, and this year they are asking for a double mask. First, they said it’s not air borne, now they say it is. Yesterday someone said not to wear a mask for too long as it is causing black fungus, someone said that don’t do steam inhalation as black fungus can come from that,” she shares, adding that in such a situation there is no way one can be very careful. “You can’t blame anyone in particular like your house help or watchman as it’s not like they are trying to catch the virus on purpose, but they might be in a space where they can. The best thing to do right now is if you can just go and live away from the city in a jungle. That is the safest way out,” she signs off.
Image source: instagram/pranitha.insta