COVID-19 Second Wave: India’s Worst Ever Health Crisis That Nobody Prepared For!
The disturbing
scenes are everywhere to behold across the country: patients crowding around
the hospitals for admission; dead bodies lying in heaps and being disposed of
in the most inhuman ways at times amid increasing stress of the doctors, nurses
and other healthcare workers; queues and crowding even in the crematoriums for
the final rituals of the unfortunate dead; the rate of national vaccination coming
down instead being ramped up in view of the enveloping crisis; lack of oxygen supply,
looming shortage of intensive care units and ventilators, shortage of
supportive repurposed drugs; and so on. A state of absolute chaos that had nearly
happened in 2020, has, perhaps, so far been averted thanks to the revamped
health sector in response to the pandemic. But, for how long with the daily
cases threatening to breach 3, 00,000 new cases per day? Can the health sector tackle
such impossible loads in the coming days, and if the second peak gets delayed
indefinitely? Chest-thumpers should enlighten us on this.
Did anybody in
the country prepare for this? Perhaps some of the medical scientists/experts
who know the behavior pattern of a viral outbreak, particularly in its second
coming that always proves to be more dangerous, were aware of this and perhaps
a few of them warned the governments accordingly. Unfortunately nothing came
out of that with the ‘leaders’ of India being ecstatic over the country-wide unlocking
and the approval accorded to two COVID-19 vaccines produced locally, in the glorious
tradition of India being the leading vaccine-producer of the world. To add to
their ‘strategy’ the attainment of the goal of ‘self-reliance and some business
with it’ had been the most important step rather than thinking about a second
wave.
In fact, a
rising trend of new cases had been visible, mostly in Kerala, Maharashtra and
Tamil Nadu, since late-February 2021 and there had been talks/fears/ about the
new mutated variants of the SARS-Cov-2 coming to India. But, except for the slow-paced
vaccination as per world protocols, there was no concern expressed, and the
Election Commission of India went ahead with its announcement for assembly
elections in five Indian states including Kerala and Tamil Nadu; all festivals,
except for a particular community on some occasions, were approved; and
politics of the Indian kind flourished unabated. Just when the galloping
figures hit them hard they started putting the blame on the larger public for
not following COVID appropriate behavior. Perhaps, that was the only ‘concern’
they were capable of expressing.
The ‘leaders’ and
‘visionaries’ occasionally indulged in virtual huddles discussing COVID
measures, and in most other days freaked out in election rallies, resorting to
all possible ‘measures’ to assemble the biggest of crowds. Well, when the ‘visionaries’
set the standards their rivals have to tread on the path of traditional
politics. No ‘measures’ were taken to control public gatherings in view of the continuing
poll phases in West Bengal, and rallies are still being indulged in even as the
daily new cases cross two and half Lakh. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a positive
gesture of withdrawing all rallies for the remaining three phases to which a
local BJP leader only mocked him saying that Gandhi cancelled as he was not
able to lure in big crowds. Yes, that is the crucial point: arranging the
biggest of crowds, defeating their rivals at that, is the priority; that cases
in West Bengal have been witnessed to rise from around 200 per day in
early-March to nearly 8500 cases per day in the last 24 hours, hardly matters.
A few
chest-thumpers eased the ways to perish for some critical patients as they
indulged in photo opportunities by the side of a huge tanker of oxygen
cylinders, delaying its supply by hours; while some others, constantly engaged
in their usual power-grabbing game, allegedly tried to sabotage the state government
ruled by rival parties by creating a deliberate shortage of a repurposed drug,
and they were very annoyed when the state government found out taking action
accordingly.
Do we need to
mention the Kumbh celebrations where at least 2 million people have been taking
holy baths in the river Ganges daily since the start of April 2021? How could
they afford to hurt their sentiments in the larger interests of the ultimate
votes, particularly when they missed it all last year? The most they could do
was only to appeal to them for a symbolic celebration. And other mass festivals
including Holi went on unabated all the while all across the COVID-tormented
country, with the latest of an affected state justifying the holding of a
forthcoming festival for they had approved it well before the cases started to
rise. How very convenient.
A news report
says that the government failed to anticipate the second wave totally, because
they did nothing to make funds available to the two main vaccine-producing
firms well in time to help them ramp up production. While everyone understood
clearly that vaccination is the only solution to control the pandemic in the
long run, particularly in a country like India. We have maintained in these
pages that the Government of India never really helped out anybody with the
demand-creating cash element despite the three financial packages declared with
real ceremony.
Well, lockdowns, not called lockdowns any more, curfews and strict curbs are in place in most of the states at the moment. How it goes from here, we are scared even to guess, as we said earlier. We can only say our prayers: God save the country.
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