Need to redesign welfare system in view of Covid: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee

Jodhpur, June 27

The Covid pandemic has paved the way for learning many lessons with regard to the country’s health situation and preparedness and highlighted the need to redesign welfare systems, Nobel laureate and renowned economist Abhijit Banerjee said on Sunday.

Addressing a webinar organised by the National Institute for Implementation Research on Non-Communicable Diseases, he focused on the economic aspect of the country’s health situation and healthcare systems. “Many young people died in the second and first wave of the pandemic, but their conditions were not detected,” the economist pointed out.

Banerjee said that the country’s welfare system had not been designed for a pandemic and stressed on the need for redesigning the welfare mechanism to deal with such situations in the future. He highlighted multiple consequences of medical practitioners without any qualification (quacks) and indiscriminate and spontaneous use of steroids and their availability.

He also highlighted the issue of over-prescribing of medicines for normal ailments. — PTI