Trauma and Triumph in the Pandemic – A Homeopathic Perspective

“Know All The Theories, Master All The Techniques, But As You Touch A Human Soul Be Just Another Human Soul.” – Carl Jung 

We as homeopaths are playing a vital role since the pandemic in supporting those who feel left out and dismissed by the so-called scientific community. Such individuals have also felt shamed by their vaccinated friends, colleagues, and family with a dismissive attitude for the choice they have taken.

It’s true that vaccination cannot be generalized for everyone. Different immune systems will react differently to vaccines and those who are immuno-compromised are at risk to its adverse effects, either right away or in the long run.

We have seen its drastic effects on young and healthy sportsmen and those with cardio-vascular conditions or it resulting in disruption of the menstrual cycle and interfering with natural conception. How can we overlook such adverse consequences?

This is not an attempt or the place to demonize the vaccines. But we need to keep questioning its efficacy and adverse effects especially as its still at an experimental stage, and most importantly focus on the role of homeopathy to dissipate adverse effects as and when possible. Vaccine hesitancy and prolonged social alienation has triggered specific expressions in individuals. This needs to be noticed and addressed by alert homeopaths.

If COVID-19 has one lesson to teach us, it is that solidarity can surge during a crisis, but sadly it also dissipates over time. As a result of social media mistrust and lop-sided governance by the official health departments at large, people are feeling fatigued, fractured, and distrustful.

It has left deep inroads of distrust and disinformation, which are likely to wear down our sense of unity within the homeopathic community as well. A ray of hope could be in the fact that we have underestimated our collective abilities to unify during calamities. The worst is also capable of bringing out the best in us. The larger fight for promotion of our science requires a strategy for cohesion.

On a slightly more positive note, while the pandemic has unleashed relentless moments of trauma and insecurity globally, there have also been a few positive outcomes seen in sectors that one usually associates primarily with exploitation, forced governance and profits. These need to be spoken about as well. It reaffirms the fact that there is goodness and selflessness in the world in every sector even at such times.

COVID-19 and Governance:

We tend to look at the motives of most politicians with skepticism. While that is understandable to a large extent, let’s try to examine where true leadership has been evident as well in the world of politics during this health crisis.

From Iceland to Taiwan and from Germany to New Zealand, women  stepped up to show the world how to manage such a global crisis as efficiently as possible. Add in Finland, Iceland and Denmark, and this pandemic has revealed that women have what it takes to tackle a world-wide health escalation.

Generally, the empathy and care which all of these female leaders have communicated seems to come from an alternate response than the one we have been usually exposed to. Their actions were transparent, decisive and at the same time empathetic to the cause.

Iceland, under the leadership of Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, offered free coronavirus testing to all its citizens, and has become a key case study in the true spread and fatality rates of COVID-19. Most countries have limited testing to people with active symptoms, let alone free.

Among the first and the fastest responses was from Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan. At the first sign of the outbreak, she introduced several measures to block the spread without having to resort to the lockdowns that had become common elsewhere. She then managed to send 10 million face masks to the U.S. and Europe. Tsai managed what CNN has called “among the world’s best” responses, keeping the epidemic under control and still recording minimal cases of fatality.

Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, had the innovative idea of using television to talk directly to her country’s children. She was building on the short, three-minute press conference that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had held a couple of days earlier.

Solberg held a dedicated press conference where no adults were allowed. She responded to kids questions from across the country, taking time to explain why it was ok to feel scared. The originality and simplicity of the idea takes one’s breath away. How many other simple, humane innovations would more female leadership unleash?

Role of Corporations:

Although the COVID-19 crisis continues to increase in severity and seriousness, it’s inspiring to see the many ways companies and successful professional artists are giving what they can to those in need, leveraging their existing resources to make a difference, uniting together whenever possible to bring levity, relief and resources where they were needed most. We saw famous musicians like John Legend, Keith Urban and Pink play free concerts for people isolated at home.

One of India’s oldest conglomerates, Tata Group imported 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen in order to combat the severe oxygen shortage in India. Their steel unit also, reportedly, amped up oxygen production. It’s also been reported that the group had been in talks with the government of Madhya Pradesh to facilitate setting up an oxygen plant in the state.

The PayTM Foundation announced its goal of raising Rs 10 crores to source oxygen concentrators. It urged its users to donate as much as they can, promising to match each contribution with the same amount. Aside from this, the foundation ordered 1,000 concentrators to be donated across the country and worked on collaborating with partners to import over 30,000 more. There are several more examples of such acts of benevolence from corporate houses.

The Cuban initiative and CueVir:

The general community of homeopaths at large and their respective governments dilly-dallied in declaring a clear course of action in terms of a genus epidimicus or homeo-prophylaxis. Cuba on the other hand seized the urgency of the situation and both their homeopathic community and official health agencies cleared license protocols and bureaucracy by offering a remedial solution in the form of CueVir. One may not entirely agree with this approach, but when time is of essence there is a need for quick execution. There is much to learn from such an exercise. Let’s look at the ingredients selected for this formula –

CueVir ingredients –

Anas barberiae/Oscillococcinum 200c
Arsenicum Album 200c
Baptisia tinctora 200c
Bacillinum 30c
Bryonia 200c
Crotalus 30c
Eupatorium perf 200c
Gelsemium 200c
Influenzinum 200c
Pneumococinum 200c
Pyrogenium 200c
Tuberculinum Av 200c

Bach essences also used in the formula:

Malus Pulmina/Crab Apple – (Obsessive behavior regarding hygiene)
Helianthemum nummularium – (Panic and Anxiety)
Clematis vitalba – (Fainting)
Impatiens glandulifera – (Frustration and Irritability)
Prunus cerasifera/Cherry Plum – (Nervous Breakdown)
Ornithogalum umbellatum/Star of Bethlehem – (Restores self healing abilities)

You can see why each one of the ingredients were put together in this formula. Can it replace the need and efforts required in deriving a genus epidemicus? Certainly not. But it is certainly a great Plan B.

A genus epidemicus requires careful collating of data and deriving the main remedy, or a set of remedies based on specific parameters. In a global epidemic where a vast number of individuals are affected, it is safer to provide a set of remedies with very clear indications and then select the one most suitable.

Knowing the stage of the infection at which a patient sought our help was also crucial. In the first wave, the pattern that clearly emerged was severe myalgia with chills. This was soon followed by profuse coryza from both eyes and nose, along with violent sneezing resulting in bladder incontinence and loss of smell. And finally, if the infection progressed further, a stage of collapse due gastro-intestinal involvement leading to pneumonia and more fatal outcomes such as vital organ failures and coma.

When tracked with such precision, it was much easier and quicker to select the appropriate remedy and potency. Here is one such proposed and clinically tested scenario that played an essential role in both homeo-prophlaxis as well as helping people to be less vulnerable to viral mutations. They were also used as a line of treatment for acute cases during the first wave in different continents –

The remedies proposed in sequence were:

1. Eupatorium perfoliatum 1M ( Compositae )
2. Squilla mairitima 1M ( Lilliflorae )
3. Camphora 1M ( Magnoliae )

A clear understanding along with a willingness to accept the striking sensations and psychological component of each of the three above mentioned remedies, besides the characteristic symptoms of each, was a vital clue for accurate prescribing.

In the Compositae phase, patients would demonstrate a severe bruised muscle  and bone like pains making them very apprehensive when approached due to fear of receiving further injury. So the subjective observations were as important as the objective physical data.

In the Lilliflorae phase, there was a feeling of being excluded due to being infected with the virus. This within the family or work place resulting in a lot of anxiety and insecurity.

In the Magnoliae phase, there was either a total giving up due to sheer shock and exhaustion and septicemia, or a shrieking for aid in the form of individual or collective praying as seen most prominently in Italy and Iran.

While this offered instant relief to several individuals, there was no collective planning for the next wave in the form of clarity in viral variant alignment with the essential use of subsequent appropriately selected remedies.

By then homeopaths were needing to prove dogmatically that their proposed genus was the right one, or could still be the only one in successive waves that we were subjected to. In this we lost valuable time and a cosmos-sent opportunity to seal the definite presence and relevance of homeopathy during a severe pandemic.

There was also no lab evidence in the form of data post the genus epidemicus remedy used in the form of COVID specific anti-bodies being generated post remedy administration.

So until we have an international body that is equipped to garner support and data from homeopaths all over the world and come up with a collective measure, we as homeopaths might not have learnt anything from this pandemic.

The need of the hour was to not only to collate and process accurate data globally, but also to stay alert to variants and what remedies were being considered/suggested by reputed homeopaths from all over the world.

If a particular case of COVID-19 had a spurt of nail growth during the course of the infection along with a heightened state of sensitivity to atmospheric pollutants, Ozone as proposed should have been kept in mind. Or if the infection caused cyanosis along with toxemia and impaired cognition, Carbo-oxygen (Carbon monoxide) should certainly have been considered.

Such characteristic symptoms overrule a proposed genus and should become ones first remedy choice when a patient presents with the same. What is being proposed is nothing new. It is all present in the sixth edition of the Organon – Aphorsims 33, 80, 100-103 and 235-244. We need to dust it and give it a re-look.

The mRNA vaccines available may be working to keep people from dying and staving off severe disease in many people around the world, but they’re not perfect. They don’t stop all infections, and it does seem like the immune protection they offer may fade more quickly than many would have hoped, especially now that new variants are at play. This emphasizes even further the role and significance of homeopathy at such times.

While the selection of the genus epidemicus is pivotal to such a health crisis, one cannot ignore the fact that every individual is unique and one needs to perceive very clearly when specific cases defy a broad label approach and will respond better to a more customized approach.

Let’s examine such a case in practice. What is worth noting is that the woman referred to in the case below was on Camphor as her constitutional remedy.  However, during the pandemic her state got very intense and Camphor was no longer able to stabilize the condition.

This is what primarily alerted me as she was in and out of phases of debility and collapse. And while Camphor was one of the main remedies being used for COVID-19 during wave one, the remedy though seemingly indicated was no longer helping her.

This is when the case was reviewed. The despair from her failing health and deep emotional hurt due to familial lack of sensitivity, can be considered as a sad and common consequence as a result of this pandemic. But enveloped around that was the unique representation of her individual state, which had been missed by me so far, and which the prevailing circumstances as a result of the pandemic, had helped clear my clouded perception.

To be continued next month….

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.”                                  Swami Vivekananda
Dr Sunil Anand

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