The men practising the science of medicine are an esoteric lot who commanded a lot of respect. Till recently.

And then the virus struck!

And it showed the world the true picture.

It exposed the weaknesses of the white coat industry. The public at large now sees us as a vulnerable lot, frequently not at the top of things, experimental and perhaps a failing mess. A few may even have been disappointed at the chaos we generated. The highest body for health, the WHO – the highest body for health- has not shone either and may also have suffered a hole in its bag of credibility.

So, in this war between man and disease, have we lost the game? Has medical science claimed more than it could deliver? Have our achievements and experiments been in the wrong direction?

These questions would take experts and policymakers to do a lot of introspection and research to answer it comprehensively.

But there is one thing we could all agree. And it is about the true nature of science. It is indeed trials and errors that has been propelling it. There are more failures in the history of medicine than success. All students of medicine who read history know that. For every antibiotic that worked there are dozens which got nowhere beyond the lab. For every medical appliance that was tried, not all stood the test of time and safety.

But that is not what the public knows.

In the last few decades we have been overdosed with half-news comprising essentially of successes. Failures are hardly reported.