India's Response to Covid-19 Is a Humanitarian Disaster
bostonreview.net
bostonreview.net
The lockdown was a good step. But poorly enforced. /people think it is against their prestige if they are home quarantined/. Not much of rationale could be seen even during the lockdown. People always put emotions above logic and screw up everything.
People also stepped out of homes unnecessarily because they don't understand the seriousness of the situation. But it is like every other country, only that we have much higher population density and disorganised public.
But the darker side is that there are lot of people in India who Cannot afford to stop working and stay at home. And this means lockdown can't be completely obeyed at villages, where most of agricultural activity happens. Village people are harder to keep aware of social distancing as well. (No offence intended, in fact I am from a village). The agricultural activities confined to villages wouldn't have been a big issue if people reduced other methods of contact with cities / other villages. But they don't understand.
Since there is no Govt. support for COVID-19 patients, it costs some multiple times of a village person's income. That means people won't get tested even if they have slight idea about the pandemic and suspect they are infected - because they can't afford treatment even if they get tested.
COVID-19 is currently mostly limited to urban areas. I can't even imagine what happens if it spreads to villages.
In the urban centers at least it's now being questioned https://scroll.in/article/966898/how-many-people-in-india-ha...
As of today, India has around 1.19 million cases with 28,732 deaths and more importantly, 753k recoveries.
Comparatively, the US has around 4.04 million cases with 145k deaths and only 1.2 million recoveries.
What is missing from most conversations around COVID is how to strengthen your immune system to resist the more deadly symptoms of the virus.
The Indian diet, based on Ayurvedic principles, emphasizes the use of spices and other ingredients that are naturally anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial. It is common in many Indian families to treat seasonal illnesses through home remedies rather than immediately resorting to medication. Doctors in India are recommending COVID-positive patients to do the same. These home remedies include eating "soonth goli" (a mix of ginger, piprimul jaggery, almonds, and ghee), drinking turmeric milk, and various forms of steam therapy, to name a few.
When almost 75% of COVID patients are recovering, clearly India must be doing something right.
Only if you believe the reported number.
India has a bad track record in tracking deaths.
Most deaths go unreported specially in rural areas. Only 20% of the deaths are reported and it was found that most of the deaths where reason was covid19 were reported as death due to other morbidities like organ transplant, diabetes etc...