Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the world at present. With each passing day, the number of patients afflicted with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is rising at an alarming pace, so much so that some countries are now combating the second wave of the contagion. As the death ratio due to the Virus increases, the medical fraternity and pharmacologists are working relentlessly to identify and prescribe a standardized and effective course of treatment for treating COVID-19 patients. However, medical specialists are confused about opting for the most efficacious course of treatment because the patients infected with this virus have varied symptoms at different stages. In this league, our research study attempts to conduct an empirical analysis to identify which course of treatment is the most effective and preferred one for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. The study proposes to achieve this objective by employing a scientific computation based symmetrical methodology. The present study has adopted a well-established and highly effective Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach named Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Term Sets based Analytical Hierarchy Process-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (HFLTS-AHP-TOPSIS) Methodology. The computation based symmetrical methodology evaluates the various selected course of treatments identified through different research articles and guidelines suggested by different countries, and evaluates them on the basis of opinions suggested by medical experts (including doctors, industry experts, and others) and practitioners. Thus, the results drawn are highly corroborative and can be used as an authentic reference for future initiatives being undertaken in this domain. Our research investigation outlines a systematically assessed and scientifically validated ranking for various courses of treatments used in SARS-CoV-2 treatment and proposes to be an effective reckoner in the attempts to dispel the ambiguities surrounding the cure of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, to authenticate the results of our analysis, we performed the sensitivity analysis (robustness analysis), marginal mean assessment and comparison analysis.