As we near what is, hopefully, the final leg of the COVID-19 outbreak, top psychiatrist Dr Vihang N Vahia, spoke at a virtual meet held by a public trust, V-Citizens Action Network or V-Can. V-Can acts as a bridge between citizens and local government representatives. The trust has also launched health talks recently and Dr Vahia, consulting psychiatrist at Breach Candy and Lilavati Hospital, interacted with his virtual audience through a webinar called, Mind - The Main Switch.

How everything changed
Dr Vahia began by acknowledging that the world is going through a crisis, like never before. “The closest we have come to this is the Spanish Flu 120 years ago.” Tracing the arc of the outbreak, the mental health expert said, “It all began in March 2020, when fear of getting infected by a virus that was potentially fatal really played on people’s minds. Before that, there was a grey area between December 2019 and March 2020 and then, we were plunged into complete darkness. Nobody could tell us what was going to happen.”