India: This Is Not How You Fight A Pandemic

There are 6,653 cases of COVID-19 in India as of 9 April 11:45 PM. And this is despite India testing the least. And our government is broadcasting these comparative low numbers as some sort of success. Think of this. If India had not tested anyone at all then India would have had zero SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. And the gullible public would have bought even that as the success of their God Modi. People are yet to realise or do not want to indulge in a thought that goes against great leader’s image how the ‘low number of recorded cases across the country might be a result of the government’s strict guidelines on who can be tested.’ The number of cases in India right now is dreary low compared to the world at large but even these numbers are not being managed respectfully. Doctors in India are facing a shortage of PPEs so much so that according to a Reuters report, PPE shortages are forcing some doctors to use raincoats and motorbike helmets. If doctors are facing this, it is not hard to think the kind of risk hospital staff, ambulance drivers and others in the health sector are up against. Least said about the number of beds and doctor to people ratio the better.

China alerted the world of a new virus outbreak way back in December 2019. The first case of coronavirus was reported in India at the end of January 2020. Rahul Gandhi, yes that ‘joker’ and ‘fool’ alerted the government of India about the coronavirus threat on February 12. News channels and even Health Minister of India (himself a doctor by profession) made fun of Mr Gandhi and even threatened him.

There are 6,653 cases of COVID-19 in India as of 9 April 11:45 PM. And this is despite India testing the least. And our government is broadcasting these comparative low numbers as some sort of success. Think of this. If India had not tested anyone at all then India would have had zero SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. And the gullible public would have bought even that as the success of their God Modi. People are yet to realise or do not want to indulge in a thought that goes against great leader’s image how the ‘low number of recorded cases across the country might be a result of the government’s strict guidelines on who can be tested.’ The number of cases in India right now is dreary low compared to the world at large but even these numbers are not being managed respectfully. Doctors in India are facing a shortage of PPEs so much so that according to a Reuters report, PPE shortages are forcing some doctors to use raincoats and motorbike helmets. If doctors are facing this, it is not hard to think the kind of risk hospital staff, ambulance drivers and others in the health sector are up against. Least said about the number of beds and doctor to people ratio the better.

China alerted the world of a new virus outbreak way back in December 2019. The first case of coronavirus was reported in India at the end of January 2020. Rahul Gandhi, yes that ‘joker’ and ‘fool’ alerted the government of India about the coronavirus threat on February 12. News channels and even Health Minister of India (himself a doctor by profession) made fun of Mr Gandhi and even threatened him.

According to the All India Drug Action Network, the need for coveralls, for instance, could rise to 500,000 per day. "Indian manufacturers were urging the government to stock up materials since early February, and to impose anti-profiteering measures. Yet by the time an order was received, the price of the components required to make ply masks had gone up "from 250 per kg to 3,000 per kg," Sanjiiiv Relhan, the chairman of the Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India, told local media.

Somewhere late in February Prime Minister Narendra Modi arranged a huge Trump rally in a Gujarat stadium with packed crowds. Just before this, there were state elections in Delhi which despite all possible efforts by BJP’s war machinery, including Modi and Amit Shah, BJP had to face a humiliating defeat. Among many of its candidates who lost was Kapil Mishra who later incited a mob (by threatening anti-CAA protesters with Delhi police in the background) leading to state-sponsored pogrom aided by Delhi police and of course, Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, who by not speaking a word for three days bought rioters their essential time to burn the capital.

As late as March 5, Health Minister of India Dr Harshvardhan was taking potshots at Rahul Gandhi saying Mr Gandhi “obviously ‘knows’ better than WHO which is saying there is no need to panic” and how “India DOES have a robust healthcare system which is being appreciated globally. Rahul Gandhi do you know what’s happening around the world?” Globally, it was havoc. We by now had news from Italy, South Korea, Spain, and of course China. Everything pointed at danger. And yet we chose to look the other way. 

The first two weeks were devoted to toppling the Congress government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and installing a BJP government in its place. On March 11 the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Two days later, on March 13, the health ministry said that corona “is not a health emergency” — Arundhati Roy

After all this, the Indian govt started to act on Coronavirus outbreak. But the way India dealt with the outbreak is different from how the rest of the world is fighting. Prime Minister at the time of writing this, addressed the nation thrice. Once to ask his flock of sheep (that is an entire citizenry which has left its brain in freezers) to bang their plates from balconies, next to announce a 21-day lockdown which was as sudden as demonetisation was leading to huge reverse migration of migrant labourers from metros to their villages. Some of them walked for days as there was no transport provided to them, unlike free airlines that brought NRIs from coronavirus affected countries into India. Then came the financial package which had as many holes as the number of wounds it tried to patch. And finally, Prime Minister again showed up to ask citizens to switch off their lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm and light candles and oil lamps which they dutifully did. Some even went on to light firecrackers causing fire-incidents which resulted in the burning of their houses, some arranged rallies with burning torches reminding people of American ultra-right. News channels on the night of 9-pm-9-minutes went absolute bonkers. We were told how collective lighting of lamps will kill the demon of coronavirus, how Modi is leading from the front and other wonderful things that will come from this exercise. What news channels haven’t told them is, and Prime Minister knowingly forgets to address in his Kim-Jong style appearances is, by not testing enough we are only letting the virus spread more because, in absence of tests, people who are affected but not showing symptoms keep roaming around, meeting people and spreading infection, our doctors and hospital staff are catching virus too because they don’t have adequate PPEs. There are already hospitals that themselves have become hotspots for viruses, some even have to close themselves because one of the doctor from hospital tested positive. Remember, we already have fewer hospitals. The only reason why we have fewer positives is that because we are testing less. If you only tested say, hundred people, you will at maximum get a hundred positives. So the comparison of US and Italy’s lakhs of positives with Indias thousands is flawed. India is not fighting to contain the virus but fighting, rather briskly and at huge risk, to contain the numbers to save the image of its version of Kim-Jong-Un. We must understand, the virus does not care for any of this, it does not care how you stood in balconies clapping for your docs, it does not care you lit candles, it only cares how fast and efficiently it can spread, which is, its natural and evolutionary instinct.

 

India is not fighting to contain the virus but fighting, rather briskly and at huge risk, to contain the numbers to save the image of its version of Kim-Jong-Un. We must understand, the virus does not care for any of this, it does not care how you stood in balconies clapping for your docs, it does not care you lit candles, it only cares how fast and efficiently it can spread, which is, its natural and evolutionary instinct.

Prime Minister also hosted video conferences, one with state leaders — much required. And one with media bosses asking them to focus on positives and not indulge in the negatives. You must read the Caravan report to understand how they all followed this guideline. And then Mr Modi spoke with sportspersons. He is yet to speak with doctors, other medical professionals, scientists and other people who are fighting this pandemic from the front. We shall wait for that.

Many doctors, nurses and other medical staff who are at the forefront of the country’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic have reportedly contracted the virus. Health workers say lack of "proper" protective gear has exposed them to the perils of their profession and made them susceptible to the viral attack. — TOI 

If that’s what government has been doing, what are Indians busy at? 

Indians are known to abide by the word of their god leader, so as expected they came out other day and banged their plates. Next, they switched off their lights and lit candles/diyas for complete 9 minutes. Do these things get doctors and health workers what they need? Absolutely no. Then what do they do? They instil a sense of purpose into docile public who have been locked behind their doors. We all want to participate, we all like being useful, and in this exercise, when you are banging plate or lighting a candle, you know who has asked you to do it, you associate your action with Mr Modi — what does that do — it gives each one who’s banging plates a feeling that Modi is working. When you look from your balcony and see people doing something in unison, when you open your TV and hear anchors say ‘look what Modi has got people to do’, you instantly connect. Add to it Modi’s electric persona. We all like attention and Mr Modi’s attention? What can be more orgasmic? Have you walked into a village and watched how they speak about Modi — it’s like they have seen some kind of God. Watching Modi speak to them via these addresses to the nation is like watching Ramayana on Doordarshan in its heydays when streets used to all go empty. People are happy that they are following Modi’s orders, they are so happy to be told to do something by their dear leader.

This is the second national gimmick, the first one was to bang pots and pans before the lockdown. This comes after the horrendous experience of lakhs of migrant labourers who were forced to walk back home, in the absence of food or wages in the cities.
The images of the migrant workers resulted in a PR disaster for Narendra Modi, who has been busy using coronavirus crisis for his PR — such as unnecessarily setting up a fund called PM CARES when there was already a fund for people to contribute to.
At 9pm on 5 April, when people light a lamp, Narendra Modi will be demonstrating that he’s still the popular leader people have faith and trust in. After all, they are following his commands. This will help him overcome the damage to his image caused by the migrant labour fiasco. In short, this is a political show of strength.
What it won’t do, is that it won’t tell us why the export of protective gear for doctors were allowed till as recently as 19 March, or why the government did nothing all of January and February to prepare for what was coming, by scaling up the resources for testing, isolation centres, ventilators and other medical infrastructure.
- Shivam Vij

Contrast all this with Manmohan Singh who silently fought Swine flu (H1N1) influenza. 2009 outbreak of Swine flu, like COVID-19 now, was declared a pandemic by WHO. Soon after the outbreak of flu in the US and Mexico, the government of India started screening of people coming from affected countries at airports leading to the detection of first positive on 13th May at Hyderabad airport. In a year since that first detection, 1035 people lost their lives. There was lockdown in some areas too which was by and large detested then. The outbreak was contained successfully and silently. Manmohan Singh did not appear on our TV screens, the doctor didn’t ask his citizens to bang plates or light candles. His lockdown did not result in a reverse migration of migrant population. Nobody remembers Dr Singh now for he did not assign his citizens daily tasks so they could remember Singh as someone who worked — his work was invisible from public eyes. He worked because that’s what he was elected for, that’s what Prime Ministers are supposed to do. There is no greatness in a Prime Minister fighting for his nation. That’s the very job he has been voted to perform. There is nothing extraordinary in auto driver riding his auto, policeman doing policing, software developers coding, armymen patrolling the borders or Prime Minister fighting a pandemic — that is exactly what their work demands from them. If an auto driver refuses to ride his auto to a specific place, if a policeman refuses to register a FIR, if an army man ties a civilian onto his jeep and parades him on-road or a Prime Minister who pronounces decisions on TV without ample thought and preparations resulting into hazardous migration and collapse of the economy then that should concern us all for they are not supposed to do such things. That’s against their job description. The banging of plates and clapping was copied from France and Italy where it was organic. Their leaders did not ask them to do all these activities. Their people did them on their own, by their own free will. They didn’t bang plates thinking collective sound of it will somehow discourage the virus in its mission — they weren’t driven by any such pseudoscience. They purely did so to appreciate the doctors who were passing by. We need to pay more attention to our actions. We are now ruled by decree. And I know words have meanings, to rule and to govern are two different things. Democracies are governed but India, the largest democracy, is no more governed. It is ruled, by decree.

What is sadder, sadder than our rulers and people full of unscientific nonsense, are those driven by hate. Across the world, the virus is bringing people closer to each other. Exes are texting their old partners, old friends are catching up on conference calls, all in all, the entire world seems to forget its differences and is helping each other. China has sent help to Italy, Cuba against which European powers for long had sanctions is sending its doctors and help to fight the virus. Not just people but even global powers have come together in fighting this pandemic. They understand how the virus does not understand national boundaries, how it does not care which god we pray to or if we visit a temple or mosque or church. But India, the largest democracy, so to call, is busy fighting multiple fights along with the virus that’s fast-spreading.

Before the lockdown was in place, there were reports from multiple supermarkets in cities, of everyday people of mainland India calling everyday people of north-eastern-India as ‘corona’. One of my friend from the US who was in Delhi was also called corona by some locals there. He is Vietnamese-American. If racism was not enough, we are now down to bigotry. There was a gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area by a Muslim group attended by some Muslim foreigners, some of them later tested positive. The event took place on March 13, long before Modi came on tv to announce the lockdown but Delhi govt had already issued an advisory against the gathering of people. As cases of infected started to rise across India and their links to those who attended the Delhi event started to surface, TV media lost its shit. The media that until then had difficulty reporting on an unfamiliar virus got its mojo back. They had finally got what they were good at broadcasting. An event at a Muslim place of worship, attended by men wearing skull caps and having a strong Muslim name which they all made sure they explained to their audience. They didn’t just explain what happened but also portrayed as if Muslims had come together to spread the virus across length and breadth of India. To help the narrative, WhatsApp was full of old and out-of-context videos of Muslim men spreading the disease. There were men with white caps licking their spoons and utensils (to spread the virus), a fruit vendor licking his fruits. All this resulting in Hindus advising fellow Hindus to not talk and meet with Muslims, not to buy from Muslims, the same old demand of their social and economic boycott.

What happened at Nizamuddin should not have happened. Delhi Police has released a video claiming they warned organisers against organising such a gathering. They should not have gathered. But did they know they had someone infected among them? No. Would they have congregated knowing someone infected was about to participate as well? Absolutely no. Everyone loves their life. Everyone wants to live. Then why did they congregate despite there being enough talk about the virus and social distancing? Why did people, and by reports, around 40,000 continued to visit Tirupati-Tirumala shrine days after Nizamuddin gathering of March 13? People were flocking Shirdi too. Chief Minister of UP, Ajay Singh Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath visited Ram Lalla temple of Ayodhya in a group too. I’m sure Mr Bisht cares about his life and so do those who went to Tirupati. State ministers of Telangana participated in Ram Navami celebrations which were held after Nizamuddin gathering outrage on tv and social media. Did the ministers not know about the virus? Have they not heard about social distancing? They had. Did they care less about their life? Absolutely negative. Then why did all these people (and scores of others that I did not mention) venture out? What are we missing here?

When Kanika Kapoor episode had broken out, our tv channels ostracized her, there was a whole campaign to vilify her. She was called with worse epithets. None of us seems to understand and especially our media, that nobody, no one is interested or desiring to catch the virus. And those that get affected, whose tests reveal they are positive, even if they desire to spread it to others, they cannot do so for they are immediately sent into quarantine. Tests are only conducted if govt believes they need to be tested, and they only believe if they have suspicion and those that it suspects already spend a day or two before tests being done. They don’t even get to visit their homes before moving into quarantine. People from Nizamuddin gathering who were tested positive, the primary contacts from who it spread, they entered India via our secure airports. Were they not checked? They were. We tested them for temperature. Those fancy machines which authorities hold onto your head like guns, the ones you’ve seen on news channels and those that WhatsApp University had made people believe are COVID-19 testing machines, sad to break it down to you, they are not. They are similar to our old thermometers. These people were allowed to leave the airport because they didn’t have symptoms and our procedure says no-symptoms-no-corona-no-test. If we had kept everyone who came from affected countries in isolation or just anyone who came in was kept in 14 days isolation, then we wouldn’t have Nizamuddin incident and if we were keeping those who travelled into India since at least February into mandatory govt monitored quarantine centres, much of the outbreak as it stands today would not exist. Right now, we are taking over hotels and turning them into isolation centres. Right now, we need so many isolation rooms. Then, we would have required less. But anyway, this is not to say people who gathered at Nizamuddin didn’t do any wrong. They did. And so did those that gathered at a funeral in Morena.

A man in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, who had a foreign-travel history, has tested positive for coronavirus -- days after he organised a funeral feast for 1,500 people. Eleven of his family members have also tested positive for the deadly virus. The man, identified as Suresh, works as a waiter in Dubai. He came to Morena on March 17. The function took place on March 20. As many as 26,000 people have been put under quarantine. — WION news

Nizamuddin event occurred on March 13. Above one long after that. I don’t see any difference between these two except that one is a Muslim event and another Hindu event. You know how media portrayed one event while another didn’t even make it to tv news. What we also forget, and our news channels deliberately miss, is how Maharashtra govt and its police did not permit Tablighi Jamaat to hold a similar event in Mumbai. Delhi police and other authorities have a lot to answer too.

This still leaves out the primary question — Why were these people continuing to gather despite being warned? Everyone knows there exists a virus that originated somewhere in China and is infecting people across the world. Everyone also knows about celebrities and TV channels advising everyone to frequently wash their hands and also maintain social distance from people around. And yet, we have people placing theirs and others life in danger by carelessly loitering around like this. But again, why? Did Suresh want to spread the virus? He came from Dubai. Was he paid by some Sheikh in Dubai to spread the virus and destroy India? Damn no. They were all careless because they did not understand or were never made to understand what a virus outbreak means. How does a virus spread, what does this virus do, what is the difference between this virus and other viruses, how different is this flu caused by SARS-Cov-2 from other cases of flu? How does washing hands help? Why should we maintain social distancing? No one has cared to explain any of this. We are expecting people to blindly follow all these orders like any other government laws. We have empowered police to enforce these ‘laws’. And they have gone on to beat people mercilessly not even sparing doctors going to their duties. We want to keep people safe not by informing them but by showing them fear. That is not how it works. People are treating lockdown like seatbelt signs. People in villages come out on the main road in the evening because that’s when the police come for their rounds. They wait for the police to show up so they could run to into their homes. On some days when police don’t show up, you can see the disappointment on their faces. Do you think these people don’t watch tv? They do. They are not following because they still don’t think it’s necessary. Fifty years ago, people would not run to the doctor if someone was bitten by a snake but now they do. What has changed? Awareness. They now know treating snake bites with leaves from the forest is taking chance with life. Instead, Science and doctors have more proven medicines. We need to explain to the public what this virus is, how it started, how they are so many viruses around us, what is special about this virus and how washing hands and keeping distance from people help. Only and only then will we see voluntary action. We need people’s support and cooperation, not their subservience. We have not lost our brains completely yet. Tomorrow, if Modi asked people to hold live electric wires in each hand because it definitely will kill the coronavirus, which sure it will, but they won’t. We still have not given up on our thinking, not yet. There is still some thinking that we do. We just need to be mindful of our just-light-the-diya-what-worse-will-happen attitude. We need more and more of science and reasoning among us. More and more of science. Less and less of taking orders without questions.

Here’s some reading list:

From Bats to Human Lungs, the Evolution of a Coronavirus

How Does the Coronavirus Behave Inside a Patient?

Show Me the Science — Why Wash Your Hands?
In case you also needed science behind hand-washing.