By: Aditi Jain & Gautami Nair 06/06/2021
On January 28th, our Prime Minister declared victory over the pandemic and set out to divert his focus on election rallies. Between the two waves, several reforms were introduced like Farm laws, labour reforms, FCRA amendments, Vaccine maitree, OTP regulations, Twitter jibber-jabber, etc. But none of the announcements or speeches were warnings directing towards the massive destruction of the near future which started in March. When apprehensions were raised, the Home Minister authoritatively announced to the media that rallies were not causing the surge in the middle of a 'crowded' Bengal Campaign.
Within two weeks, the entire country came to a standstill. Social media was flooded with requests for oxygen, ICU beds, and medicines. Meetings with chief ministers and DMs were held 'after' the country faced the wrath of the virus. The alarming rise of cases in Maharashtra did not ring a bell in the ears of the administration that the second wave has begun. People lowered their guards, started attending family functions, dipped in holy Ganga during Kumbh Mela, went for destination weddings- 'the new- normal' was no more trending. State because of its ill-preparedness became a callous mute spectator in front of its desperate citizens. Previously when the pandemic only affected the marginalised sections, we raised questions for a few days and then rejoiced in the 'un'-lockdown phase. However this time, it affected the working middle-class population the most. But the centre put the onus on the states to take decisions without any monetary support and to even import vaccines from outside.
The article focuses on what and where things went wrong in analysing the current wave-
The one-year strict lockdown period was not utilised well, rather the risk aversion situation was favoured by both centre and the states. The stand-alone facilities for the production of oxygen, including the medical variant, have so far been geographically concentrated mainly in small clusters. Thus with a minimum of 1,224 cryogenic tankers, it was impossible to fulfill the demand for oxygen by such a large population. Further allocation of oxygen was uneven. S.C. had to step in to provide the required amount of oxygen to Delhi. In August 2020 there was a similar rise in acute respiratory distress patients in Europe, but even after viewing the global trend, only on April 15, 2021, the Centre said that medical oxygen is a critical component in the treatment of COVID.
Along with inadequate logistics supply chains, other bottlenecks slowed down the health sector. Many hospitals treating covid patients were caught up in fire accidents. Fire experts blamed that an "overstressed" hospital system was unable to bear the rising patient load which led to frequent fire incidents. They said, "Hospitals are increasing beds, equipment, and staff to admit more Covid patients, but it is not possible to immediately expand the electrical wiring system. Medical equipment or wires carrying current beyond their capacity can overheat. That is what is happening in many hospitals. We don't need just a fire audit, we also need an electrical audit."
Even before the virus outbreak, audits were not conducted properly and licenses were given out without proper inspection. Apart from that, the media also reported about oxygen tankers getting overturned, hospital authorities giving out fake medicines, and harassment of patients by the nursing staff. These are long ignored structural issues and have nothing to do with the unprecedented health emergency.
Five states witnessed assembly elections in the last few weeks with large gatherings. Despite the pandemic, The Election Commission allowed for an 8-phase election in Bengal without any guidelines. Newspaper reports and TV coverage of these rallies provided overwhelming visual evidence that masking and physical distancing were almost completely ignored. Therefore it seems extremely likely that these events contributed to the rapid transmission of the virus and the subsequent rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.
If our political-administrative leaders had even an iota of concern for the common people, then the public health measures would have been more strictly enforced during election rallies and other mass gatherings and man-made tragedies of enormous proportions could have been avoided.
The ICMR was particularly silent in warning against the use of unproven medication, even as it clarified the treatment protocol for emergency use drugs like tocilizumab. "Misused drugs include azithromycin, doxycycline, favipiravir, Itolizumab and Coronil", Dr. Anup Agarwal, the lead author of ICMR's plasma trial, wrote in The Hindu newspaper. "These are not mentioned in the guidelines, but practitioners are busily prescribing them. This may cause more harm than good."
A delay in updating these guidelines has led doctors to continue prescribing drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, favipiravir, and ivermectin, which showed early promise but were quickly found to be ineffective. It has also caused a panicked scurry for antiviral drug remdesivir, which became a popular therapy option as India's case count kept surging past all previous records. Giving away steroids recklessly now can have detrimental effects as it lowers immunity and increases the patient's vulnerability to suffering from Mucormycosis.
The guidelines have not kept pace with research perhaps because no one bothered about them during the months when the country's first wave had died down. An investigation by The Caravan magazine found that India's scientific task force on Covid-19 did not meet even once in February and March even as new infections had begun to rise. After January 11, it met on April 15 for the first time to assess the Covid-19 surge which had become unrelenting by then.
Politicians, pharmaceutical companies, and other leaders are continuously contradicting their statements. For instance, Dr. Harsh Vardhan replied to the letter written to the PM by Dr. Manmohan Singh, saying that congress was spreading misinformation and promoting vaccine hesitancy. However, the same central government on May 1st adopted all the measures mentioned in Dr. Singh's letter. Secondly, India is focused on asking for a patent waiver for mRNA vaccine under TRIPS agreement, however, it has not shown any interest in giving the technology to make Covaxin to other companies. By August Bharat Biotech can only make 7.8 cr doses of vaccine and SII can produce only 10cr doses whereas the approximate vaccination shots needed are more than 178cr.
The question is why the government is delaying in giving rights to companies to make the indigenous Covaxin?
Currently, the cases are coming down but can one of the reasons for this be lack of testing? The data presented by the government is not the complete truth and without having more information, it is impossible to make accurate projections. Knowing the truth is better for both public and policymakers to gauge the true state of the pandemic.
A flat-footed communication strategy and debilitating red-tapism that focuses on risk-aversion and indecision at the cost of efficiency is adding to the distress of India's already severe Covid crisis. India's obsession with being Vishwaguru, juxtaposed with misleading analysis deriding "Povertarianism", talking of freebies cannot be a replacement to sound welfarism which must prioritize the majority of Indians who need a social security net.
As the saying goes "Better late than never." It is necessary to analyse and accept the shortcomings and to rectify mistakes before the surge of the third wave.
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