Dr Meenal Viz, an eight-month pregnant doctor of Indian Origin, has been instrumental in crowdfunding more than 53,000 pounds to fight a legal battle against the British government over lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) being provided to the doctors and healthcare workers who have at the forefront of Covid-19 battle.
Dr Viz, along with her husband Dr Nishant Joshi have been the complainant against the Department of Health and Public Health England.
Based in the Capital and a clinical fellow in medicine, Viz recently shared an emotional video to her unborn child for a situation where she dies of the pandemic before her child is born.
Dr Meenal Viz posted the video on her social media accounts, showing images of life before and during the pandemic.
In the video available on her Twitter account, Dr Viz, currently working from home now can be heard saying: “Dear Radhika, in just 63 days this is going to be your new home. I hope I get to show it you, my favourite places, and all my favourite people.
She continues: “You see you’re arriving at a very difficult time, people are dying, the world is at war, and the people on the frontlines aren’t soldiers. They’re people like your dad and people like me. So I’m leaving you this message just in case.”
As the video comes closer to end, it reads: ‘Our nhs workers are dying. Help Meenal challenge the Government for better PPE.” She has shared the link of crowdfunding site which showed as on Monday night that they had raised more than 60,000 pounds out of 120,000 they are seeking to fight against the UK government.
On Thursday evening, she, in the company of a group of medics dressed in scrubs and face masks at the “Doctors, not Martyrs” protest, stood outside the gate of Boris Johnson’s office. It was timed with the weekly “clap for carers” initiative to honour healthcare workers at the forefront of pandemic fightback.
Johnson, after the clap, posted on Twitter: “I want to thank each and every one of our wonderful NHS and care workers for the incredible, selfless work they do to look after us all."
Ironically, just a few steps away from where he stood to clap, the small group of protesters led by Viz turned their back on the prime minister as a show of unhappiness.
Meenal and her doctor husband Nishant Joshi are in the process of challenging the validity of current PPE guidance on when and how equipment is used, as well as its availability.
The doctor couple have said that the current UK guidelines are not in sync with either the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines or the country’s own health and safety legislation.
