VICTIMS, CULPRITS OF ‘DAMMIKA PANIYA' AND FALSE NATIONAL PRIDE

Less than two months ago, a self-professed holy man ( Kapuwa) from Kegalle became the embodiment of the Sri Lankan ingenuity. The man who had no medical background concocted a miracle COVID-19 cure after being told of its recipe by Goddess Kali in sleep. (He is not the only one; some years back, a Math professor from a local university published a research into the Chronic Kidney Disease also guided by divine intervention).

- Ranga Jayasuriya

Dammika Bandara’s miracle drug dominated prime- time television news. Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi took a spoonful of it in front of TV cameras. Bandara was entertained in Parliament, and the Speaker and a group of Parliamentarians drank the stuff in the full glare of cameras. The President ordered further research into the local concoction. Some government Ministers defended its sheer absence of scientific basis. Local medical authorities who held deep reservations about the product hesitated to voice their opinion. After much dillydallying, they gave ethical clearance for further research into the drug.

Crowds thronged around the residence of Bandara to get the magic potion. Good practices of social distancing were thrown to the wind. If you have a magic cure, why worry about getting ill?

That farcical spectacle has now exploded on the face of the health minister. She and her husband have been tested positive for COVID-19, her office in the Health Ministry was shut down and staff had been told to undergo self –quarantine. She is the fifth Parliamentarian to contract the virus. Before that, another parliamentarian who consumed the miracle cure was tested positive for the virus.