Alchemy In the Time of Covid

CONTEXT: Recently, the suspension of Phase 3 trails of a frontrunner in anti-COVID vaccine due to developed side effects, displays the secrecy in which the vaccine development is taking place – similar to the alchemy in medieval times.

Alchemy and its Historical Significance

• Origins: Developed in 7th BCE China, then spread to Europe via Greece and finally reaching the Islamic world and derived from the Arabic word Al-kimiya.
• Considered as occult science and a heresy: In Christendom, alchemy was deemed to be a form of witchcraft, a heresy that could invoke the penalty of the ‘auto-da-fé’.

• Auto-da-fe: The 15-19th century ritual of public penance by the Inquisition, the most extreme form of which was being burned alive at stake.
• It focused on an inner transformation of the human spirit by which ignorance was transmuted into gnosis or transcendental knowledge.

• Presence in literature:  

• As exemplified by Christopher Marlowe’s late 16th century English play, Doctor Faustus, with its eponymous protagonist trading his soul to the devil for the power of boundless knowledge.
• In Rabindrasangeet, we find mention of the ‘poroshmoni’, or philosopher’s stone which the poet’s soul yearns for. 
• Rajshekhar Bose’s 1948 Bengali satirical short story ‘Porosh Pathor’ (Philosopher’s Stone) on greed was adapted to Satyajit Ray’s film of the same name in 1958.

A resemblance of Alchemy in current vaccine development

• Shrouded in secrecy: Even as an overload of information and misinformation, many of the protocols regarding the development of the various vaccines are shrouded in secrecy.
• Fear of side-effects: In recent times, many skeletons have tumbled out of the clandestine cupboards of Big Pharma, such as the thalidomide tragedy of the 1960s.

• Reports that the Phase 3 trials of a frontrunner anti-COVID vaccine were temporarily suspended after a volunteer developed severe side-effects