Covid-19 cases have been surging in India as a second wave. Scientists and the world is baffled and so is India. But nothing happens in this world without a reason! So this surge also has some solid reasons behind it.
1. The mutant strains: Viruses are known to mutate and give rise to forms with different properties than the original one. The UK variant was one such form in which transmission rate was higher. India imported it by no timely action in checking on the returnees when they arrived from the UK. And these viruses further mutated and combined on Indian soil and the triple mutant strains emerged. These genetically different mutants caused the harm.
2. People issue: The tendency of people of this land, for whatever reason,is to have a casual or callous approach to things. They do not think scientifically and strongly believe that religion and 'spirituality' would save them. This can be observed even in the educated class of people. They do not read much and depend more on hearsays. Their portals of knowledge are facebook and whatsapp and also YouTubes. And the world knows that majority of the news on these platforms is fake. Often, you hear people there repeating similar statements and reasonings for some issue and you know that they are facebook addicts.
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| Full hospitals India (Source: IE) |
Just before the second wave came in, people especially the young were saying that Covid has gone very soon. They said that it is a myth propagated by doctors. They said their local medicines and spirituality would save them. They started letting down their guard. One had to remind them repeatedly that covid has not left the world yet. But they would not listen. And the people supposed to tell them (government and law) did not enforce it. People were spotted without face masks and no social distancing. No one was checking.
And now the second wave that has swept has affected and killed more young people who thought that they were immune to the virus!!!
3. Misgovernance: The government failed miserably in controling the pandemic. It is a power-crazy government whose power control lies in religious vote banks. Hence it was busy in religious and economic things and ignored public health to a major extent. They remained mum on important health issues and concentrated on other non-essential things.
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They did not stop religious and political gatherings and these only added to the havoc that the virus created. It is a clearcut case of misgovernance where the government is shameless enough to not own up their weaknesses and gross blunders.
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| Gravediggers work round the clock, India (Source: Reuters) |
4. Vaccination not enough: Due to various issues, vaccination has been going rather slow and haphazard. Post-vaccination care has not been explained well and vaccinated people are seen going maskless as if they have been injected a miracle drug that will protect them from everything.
5. Hospital beds and oxygen supply issues: There were shortages of hospital beds and oxygen supplies for which no proper steps were taken to overcome the issues. Though a lot of meetings and discussions took place, at the ground level, nothing changed significantly.
Part of the problem was inevitable but majority of it was self-created due to ignorance, overconfidence, passiveness, biases, improper communication, lack of farsightedness, and wrong governance and policies. The outcome was predictable!
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