by the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal
It is difficult to watch the news these days, death and despair have become a daily routine. Thousands die every day as the infections increase at alarming rates. The problem is that with rising infections, which are grossly underreported, we cannot increase hospital beds or oxygen supply proportionately.
Though the oxygen crisis is only marginally under control in major urban areas like Delhi, Mumbai but the virus has so deeply permeated Indian society that we are witnessing outbreaks in tier-2 cities, towns, and villages where medical infrastructure is abysmally poor. For example, UP government’s decision to conduct village-level elections despite the reservations and objections of experts resulted in clusters in remote areas where vital tertiary care is absent. Moreover, testing rates are not matching the rising number of infections; vital medical resources will not reach the places where they are needed. Managing perceptions seems to be the priority of central and state governments.
Even the vaccination drive that was started from Mat 1st, for people over 18 is not up to the required speed. The place where I live in Noida, at the time of writing this article, only has one vaccination center catering to people over 18 and it is charging a hefty fee for vaccines that were supposed to be given for a few hundred rupees. Just one center for millions of people but in other parts of the state, there is hardly any. When we should be inoculating as many people as we can, day and night, we are wasting away precious resources in red tape and poorly planned policies. The load in hospitals will only reduce if we reduce the number of serious cases and that can only happen when people in 18-45 age groups will be vaccinated in vast numbers. People in this age group are the ones that are getting infected the most and through them, the virus reaches their family members. Even the supply of vaccinations is not properly planned; there are shortages with no clear strategy of resupply.
Questions are also being asked about the foreign aid that India is receiving. The government needs to be more proactive and transparent about how this aid is being distributed. Who would have thought that a nuclear-armed country such as India would have to resort to receiving foreign aid because it didn’t have the necessary medical supplies to save its citizens. As the second wave pandemic intensified, states bickered over oxygen. Delhi had to take help from the court in order to get its share of medical oxygen from the central government. Only now, we are seeing medical oxygen plants being installed in some major hospitals of India’s capital. And yet, the work to build the new parliament and prime ministers residence goes on unabashedly. These oxygen plants should have been installed across the country last year when we had the time but our leaders were busy satisfying their political lust by taking the credit for defeating the virus. We as a country are paying the price of the incompetency and vanity of our leaders.
These infection rates could have been controlled; thousands of lives that were lost in search of a hospital bed or oxygen could have been saved. We are helpless, angry, and in shock. I have lost some friends and some extended family members to the virus and daily I receive messages of help through colleagues, family, and friends, also shared are the news of those who are no more with us. It is too much to ask for basic medical care and accountability in this country now.