Why India failed | MIT Technology Review

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But voices like him are drowned out by the federal government’s information, which shows that India has defeated the virus in some way. The hype is so strong that even some medical professionals have accepted it. A professor at Harvard Medical School told the Financial Daily Mint, “This epidemic is manifesting in a very unique way in India.”
“The real danger of underestimation is that people will despise the epidemic,” Allen said. “If it is said that few people die from the new coronavirus, the public will think that it will not kill and they will not change their behavior.” In fact, by mid-December, India had reached another depressing milestone: it The 10 millionth infection was recorded. It is the second country after the United States to do so.
Gagandeep Kang, professor of microbiology at Vellore Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu, said that the government did not use the first lockdown wisely, but December was an opportunity to correct the problem. She said that in the now inevitable second wave of epidemics, many strategies – intensifying sequencing efforts, studying public behavior, collecting more data, denying permission for the super-spreader incident, and starting to launch vaccines earlier than planned – It could have saved many lives.
Instead, she said, the government continues its “top-down approach,” with bureaucrats rather than scientists and healthcare professionals making decisions.
“We live in a very unequal society,” she said. “So if we are to provide information and resources effectively, we need to involve people and build partnerships at a granular level.”
In December, the Goa government completely relaxed its vigilance. The state relies heavily on tourism, which accounts for nearly 17% of its income. Most tourists show up on the beach in December, celebrating Christmas and New Year with carnivals and fireworks.
Vivek Menezes, a Goa journalist, stated that the state’s reputation as a “must-visit” has not faded during the pandemic. “This is the place of the rich in India and Bollywood, and therefore the place of India,” Menezes said. The pandemic made it impossible for foreign tourists to visit, but domestic holidaymakers flocked to it. Some states, such as Maharashtra, have restrictions on borders; other countries, such as Kerala, have strict contact tracing policies. In Goa, tourists do not even need to take a negative Covid test. The state’s mask policy only applies to medical staff, visitors to medical institutions, and people experiencing symptoms. “Goa is left to the dog,” Menezes said.
The world’s largest super communicator
Since 2021, nearly 150,000 people have died in India. It was not until January that the government placed the first vaccine order, and the number was surprisingly small—only 11 million doses of Covishield, the Indian version of AstraZeneca vaccine. It has also ordered 5.5 million doses of Covaxin, a locally developed vaccine, and has not yet released efficacy data. These orders are far below the actual needs of the country. Subhash Salunke, a senior consultant at the Independent Public Health Foundation of India, estimates that 1.4 billion doses of vaccine are needed to fully vaccinate all eligible adults.
On January 28, Modi delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Announce India “has saved mankind from a catastrophe by effectively containing the corona.” Subsequently, his government approved the Dahu Festival, a Hindu festival that attracted millions of people to the holy city of Haridwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand, which is famous for its temples and pilgrimage sites. When the former chief minister of the state suggested that this year’s holiday should be “symbolic” considering this situation, he was fired.
Senior Politician of the Prime Minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party tell The Indian magazine The Caravan stated that the federal government is focused on the upcoming state elections and does not want to lose the support of religious leaders.Facts have proved that Kumbh is not just any super-spreading event-it is reported that 9.1 million people participated in it. It is the world’s biggest Super communicator incident. “Anyone with a basic public health textbook will tell you that now is not the time,” Kang said.
After registering nearly 150,000 deaths, the Indian government only placed the first vaccine order in January 2021. Even so, for a country with a population of 1.3 billion, its numbers are astonishingly low-11 million doses of Covishield and 5.5 million doses of Covaxin.
In February, when public health expert Salenke was working in an agricultural area in the western state of Maharashtra, he noticed that the virus was spreading “much faster” than before. It affects the entire family.
“I think we are dealing with an agent that has changed or seems to have changed,” he said. “I started investigating.” Now it turns out that Salenke discovered a mutation in a variant that was discovered in India in October last year. He suspects that this variant, now called delta, is about to flood. It did. It is now in more than 90 countries.
“I went to find all the responsible and important people-whether it was district officials or bureaucrats at the central level, you can tell. Everyone I know immediately shared this information with me,” he said.
Salenk’s discovery did not seem to affect the official response. Even though the second wave of the epidemic is accelerating, and after the World Health Organization designated the new mutation as an “interested variant” on April 4, Modi still maintained a busy schedule before the state elections in West Bengal and attended in person There were many public gatherings.
Once he Gloating Regarding the scale of the crowd he attracted: “I saw people crowded in all directions… I have never seen such a crowd at a gathering.”
“The rally is a direct message from the leadership that the virus has disappeared,” said Laxminarayan of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy.
The second wave rushed into the hospital, quickly depleting beds, oxygen and drugs, forcing the panting patients to wait at home and then die. parking lotAnd in sidewalkThe crematorium had to build a temporary crematorium to meet the demand, and there were report The pouring ashes drifted far, soiling the clothes one kilometer away. Many poor people can’t even afford the funeral expenses and immersed the bodies of their loved ones directly in the Ganges, causing hundreds of bodies in several states to be washed ashore. In addition to these apocalyptic scenes, there is news that a deadly fungal infection is overwhelming patients with the new coronavirus, which may be due to low infection control and excessive dependence on steroids to treat the virus.
Chaos continues; Delta spread
There has always been Modi. The prime minister has always been the spokesperson for India’s fight against the pandemic-literally: his head appears prominently on the certificate issued to the vaccinated person. But after the second wave, his premature victory was ridiculed, and his lack of preparation was widely ridiculed. Since then, he has largely disappeared from public view, passing the blame on colleagues, especially — and inaccurately — the political opponents of the government. As a result, Indians had to face the biggest national crisis of their lives alone.
This kind of abandonment has created a sense of friendship among some Indian groups, Many people use social media and WhatsApp to help each other By sharing information about hospital beds and oxygen cylinders. They are also organizing locally to distribute food to those in need.
“This [BJP] The rally is a direct message from the leadership that the virus has disappeared. “
Ramanan Laxminarayan, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy
But the leadership vacuum has also created a huge market for profiteers and crooks at the highest level. In May of this year, opposition politicians accused the ruling People’s Party leader Tejaswi Surya of participating in the vaccine committee’s scam. Goa’s Minister of Health, Vishwajit Rane, was forced to deny that he was involved in a scam involving the purchase of ventilators. Even PM Cares, the prime minister’s iconic new crown relief fund, was under fire for buying 60,000 ventilators for 22.5 billion rupees (over US$300 million). Doctors later complained that these ventilators were malfunctioning. “It’s too risky to use.” The fund has attracted at least US$423 million in donations and has also raised concerns about corruption and lack of transparency.
A successful vaccination agenda may help erase the memory of a series of mistakes, but under Modi’s leadership, this is just one technocratic mistake after another. At the end of May, because there were far fewer vaccines on hand, the government announced plans to start mixing different types of vaccines. At the peak of the second wave, it launched Co-WIN, an online booking system that is mandatory for anyone under the age of 45 who tries to vaccinate. system, Has been under scrutiny for months, Is catastrophic: it not only automatically excludes those who do not use computers and smartphones, but it is also attacked by vulnerabilities and overwhelmed by people who desperately need protection.
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