In a letter last month a NGO, Atulya Ganga had cited the presence of a ‘ninja virus’, called bacteriophage, in Ganga’s water that could cure Covid-19.
Bacteriophage is a special type of virus that eats harmful bacteria, the letter said. Covid-19 is a virus. The NGO asked the government on 3 April to conduct a study on the possibility of this virus acting as a cure. It sent a copy each to the ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), reports ThePrint. In response, the ministry’s National Mission for Clean Ganga, the department administering the Modi government’s ambitious Namami Gange programme, then wrote to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on 30 April requesting a clinical trial. The ICMR then held a meeting to discuss the idea, but refused to proceed. A source in the ICMR, cited by ThePrint, said the agency has refused to get involved as it is focussing on the Covid-19 battle and doesn’t want to waste time on other research amid the pandemic. Also read: Authoritarianism on the rise: 30 regimes using coronavirus to repress their citizens