When Will the Indian Government Stop Feeding the Public With Half-truths and Lies?
The most recent half-truth is that 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) will arrest the spread of Covid-19. Show me the data!
The government, aided by media persons, is falling all over itself to get out stories on how Indian scientists have made the astounding finding that 2-Deoxy-D-glucose will mitigate the spread of Covid-19. The stories are followed by innumerable kudos and what not, without any scientific background and justification for its use provided to the public. As a scientist, what I find most alarming is that (in interviews that I have heard and read) those who are interviewed, scientists and non-scientists alike, have not bothered to credit decades of research on 2DG for them to even begin to consider using it as a possible treatment.
Let’s put things in perspective. Multiple Nobel Prizes have been awarded since 1902, for science that has shone a light on glucose. Glucose is by probably the most important molecule to our existence. Simply put, without glucose cells die. Some cells require more glucose than other cells; cells that are busy multiplying need more glucose to get the multiplication job done. Therefore, if you interfere with the supply of glucose to a cell, the cell will die. A quick PubMed search will reveal that at least since the 1950s various analogues of glucose…
