How will the History looks at us: COVID-19

India is now in the second wave of COVID-19, and unlike the first wave, this time, it hit our country very hard. People are dying not because of COVID but because they can’t access the proper resources at this critical time.

20 to 30 years or a century from now, how will History look at this timeline?. We live in the 21st century, yet we failed to connect the dots when most needed.

Image credits:[ Link ]

Forecast

We have advanced data analytics algorithms that have predicted the second wave warning, yet we have failed to take the necessary steps. We have already been in an iteration of the first wave. At that time, we were unaware of the transmission dynamics, the preventive measures on an individual level and the combined scaled strategy, but when the first wave receded, we had almost a year to fix things up. From building the medical infrastructure to forming the supply chain, we have failed on every level.

Web Portal

India is the hub for the largest IT companies in the world. Yet, there is no real-time and reliable Portal that people can rely on for hospital beds availability and oxygen supplies. Many undergraduates have come up with Building web portals providing this data updated manually, and they are entirely volunteering organizations. Imagine the level of efficiency we could have if the Government had poured in efforts to build such.

Here is the compilation of COVID resources in the Google Doc. [Link]

Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry in India was valued at US$33 billion in 2017. Generic drugs account for 20 per cent of global exports in terms of volume, making the country the largest provider of generic medicines globally. Yet, the production of vaccines is not met, and people have to buy the Remdesivir injection for 50k in the black market.

As Bloomberg Quotes[Link]
    “Negligence – individual to bureaucratic — is being blamed for the latest wave. That is true. It’ll be even truer if India doesn’t start to go back to the basics of building out its healthcare infrastructure. It’s pointless being the pharmacy of the world when you can’t heal your people.”


Oxygen supply chain

On April 21, the Union minister said India had three times more liquid medical oxygen available in storage tanks of steel plants than combined demand from 12 states with high COVID-19 risk, but that didn’t help the crisis.[source]

Metric tonnes of Liquid Oxygen is available with steel plants, but the supply chain made the situation worse. What’s the use if it didn’t reach the patient at the right time? The handling of the oxygen supply by hospital staff has also added to the chaos, as the delay in loading the oxygen has led to the death of 13 patients in Tirupati. [Link]

People are not trained to handle situations like this. We are never taught how to handle a crisis when we look back. Our education system and societal upbringing always favoured risk aversion, leaving us with not enough grit and protocols to address the situation.

Funds Allocation:

Our daily life has become more hassles with UPI transactions, and fintech startups have made India digital. In April 2020, when PM called out for the PM care funds, everyone stepped in and contributed a lot. Even in the second wave crisis, many celebrities and tech CEOs have donated a considerable sum, but where has all this money gone?.

The root problem here is the transparency of these funds and no proper medium to ensure that this money is allocated to the right person and the needy. A man recently tweeted how even after donating Rs 2.51 lakh to PM CARES, he couldn’t find a hospital bed for his dying mother[Link]

Banning social media posts

The thing that brewed in the last decade with the advent of technology is Radicalism, which led to the cult following for the leader and fixated the citizens in the righteous framework of whatever Government does is in the country’s best interests. Anyone critical of the leader’s decision is tagged as anti-national, which is wrong on many levels.

History:
Excerpt from 21 Lessons for the 21st Century book:

    “In the fourteenth century, the Black Death killed between a quarter and a half of European populations, yet no king lost his throne as a result, and no king made much of an effort to overcome the plague. Nobody then thought that preventing plagues was part of a king’s job. On the other hand, rulers who allowed religious heresy to spread in their dominions risked losing their crowns, and even their heads.”

But in the 21st century, why is it not deemed the Ministry’s accountable in handling this crisis? We can’t let the blame slide onto the people here. The utmost an individual could do is follow social norms, put up a mask and limit his mobility, but again all these are privilege options most of the country’s populations sustain on the day to day wages. It is the sole responsibility of the Gov to fill these shoes.

How will History see us in the future? We have the most sophisticated resources, yet we failed as humanity in every aspect. Watching their dear ones suffer and remain helpless due to the lack of resources is the most painful thing they will hunt for the rest of their lives. Who should be held accountable for this? What lessons are we passing on to future generations?.

As Samdish from ScoopWhoop Unscripted quotes: 

When a king fails in upholding his duties,
That is when this happens.
Premature death takes place.
A sin is committed.
There is disorder everywhere.
I am not saying this.
This is in the context of Ramayana.