There should be some tangible benefit from agreeing to have the vaccine. But in most cases we may never even know our vaccination triggered. We therefore welcome the decision to relax mask-wearing regulations for vaccinated people in United States. We hope and trust it works, as we believe it should. India’s COVID-19 surge shows what can happen when a nation gets its coronavirus policies wrong.
How the Coronavirus Pandemic Caught Up on India
Washington Post recalls how India’s health-care workers, and epidemiologists were puzzling over how well things were going in February 2021. Daily case counts were down, they had enough ventilators and they might even avoid a second wave. Then the situation suddenly, quite recently took a bad turn. People are dying in India from the virus because the health system can no longer cope.
The Factors Possibly Causing India’s COVID-19 Surge
1… A False Narrative About Herd Immunity
The epidemiologists had previously surmised wide-scale herd immunity was suppressing a second surge. ‘There was a public narrative that India had conquered COVID-19,’ says Ramanan Laxminarayan, an epidemiologist in Princeton University. People relaxed, and went back to socializing, traveling and holding large weddings and other gatherings.
2… The Possibility of New Variants Driving the Surge
New, more infectious variants and mutations could be partly behind India’s COVID-19 surge. However, scientific consensus is lacking concerning the extent of the effect. The so-called ‘double mutant’ is spreading in Maharashtra state, the second-most populous country subdivision in the world. Moreover, the variants first appearing in Brazil and South Africa are also popping up in tests.
3… Did India’s Government Take Its Eye off the Ball?
India has extensive vaccine manufacturing capacity, but may have been over-focusing on exports. Coronavirus vaccines will be available to everyone over eighteen on May 1 for the first time. The government is still resisting a nation-wide lockdown. However, it is ramping up oxygen manufacture.
The consequences are there for us to learn from, and take on board. We won’t go into the shortages of vaccine and oxygen in this post. However, we do acknowledge the Indian government has taken the necessary action to address these. We believe now is the time to concentrate on saving lives.
Related
India’s Second Wave Seems Relentless
New Delhi Exposes the Virus Dark Side
Preview Image: Daily COVID-19 Vaccine Doses
