Tea with BS: Ashoka University's Gautam Menon on getting ready for Covid-19

Menon explains to Rahul Jacob why viruses are "a given of humankind" and why wearing masks as protection is ineffective for most people

A recent Sunday afternoon at the Bangalore International Centre featured dastangoi story-telling, an avant garde dance performance and an uplifting talk on improving public education. The Thursday of Gautam Menon’s talk on Covid-19 in late February is also a busy one that coincides with the opening day of an exhibition of artisanal work inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. As soon as Menon, a professor of biology and physics at Ashoka University and a leading authority on the spread of viruses, has tested the audio-visual system, I ask him if the government’s public campaigns on how to avoid becoming infected have been