Politicians should allow systems to fight Covid

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 2 Years ago
Helplessness: relatives of Covid patients breaking down at a oxygen inhaling center (Ravi Batra)
Helplessness: relatives of Covid patients breaking down at a oxygen inhaling center (Ravi Batra)

 

 Atir Khan/New Delhi

Sooner or later it catches you. It didn’t catch me one whole year but it has caught me now and put me in home isolation with a realisation that it's not just me or my family, which is going through an existential crisis but the entire nation.

Every time an ambulance passes with its sirens blaring on the road outside my window, it gives me shivers…each time it happens I think it could be my turn next. My neighbours have been supportive; they send me food every day since my family and I have been hit.

So have been my colleagues and bosses. They call me almost every day to inquire about my oxygen saturation level and temperature.

It is when you are hit by the disease; you turn Covid positive you realise how scary the situation is. Each moment, hour, and day of your recovery is full of anxiety. Further, when you hear news of your near and dear ones losing their battles to the Covid, it leaves you traumatised.

In between, there are scores of phone calls from friends and relatives, who go on and on phone to telling you about treatments they have discovered lately.

Others don’t refrain from prescribing you various Ayurveda, herbal and Unani remedies. So, now, I know why India is known as a pharmacy of the world!

The chapter on Fundamental Duties in the Constitution of India as laid out in Article 51A(H) recommends that every citizen should encourage the development of the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. This has been done for a reason but we fail to practice it.

From my experience I have realized that it makes more sense to keep your Covid positive report a secret. Just inform the apartment staff where you live and are in home isolation. Of course, you also need to keep the telephone number of the ambulance guy handy…just in case you require it in the middle of the night.

Take oximeter and thermometer as the best guides to your healt; they never lie. In this crisis, your best friend and relatives cannot guarantee help in case you need to get admitted to a hospital. So it’s best not to put them in an awkward situation.  

While grappling with the disease, I got enough time to think about what needs to be done in the country. I realised it’s about time politicians take a back seat and let the systems work. The need of the hour is to decentralise, delegate responsibilities and form teams that can deliver under pressure.

It’s a fact that a pandemic of this magnitude can overwhelm any country. However, I feel there are a few things the governments in India should have done after last year’s Covid outbreak.

It is a known fact that a pandemic returns in its second or third wave. Keeping this in mind a few things were doable but couldn’t be done. Other than the obvious postponing of elections and reducing the size of religious gatherings, there were other things to take care of.

For example the government failed to make a policy to deal with an eventuality of the second wave. That policy could have taken into account the possibility of imposing a nationwide lockdown. Our systems down to district level are robust and have rarely failed us; these needed to be utilised in an organised way.

 Seeing the situations of Pandemic in countries like Germany, France or, the UK, we should have planned our economic resources for a possible complete lockdown.

Lessons from the first lockdown should have been used to design a policy and the same declared in the public domain. That could have prevented the eventual chaos. In that case, people would cooperate.Micro-zonation and containment zones concepts could have been improvised.

Behind the shortage of oxygen this time was the panic and that could have been avoided by taking the public on board and planning in advance.

India should have allowed vaccines like Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and others available in the international markets to enter Indian markets much earlier. If need be the governments could have cracked down on black marketers or hoarders. In the absence of taking the above-mentioned measures a panic situation has been created. There are pictures of helplessness all around us.

This gives an impression that governments are doing precious little to improve the situation. This image could be deceptive. It is apparent that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working tirelessly to fight the virus; the health and allied systems need to be working with equal dedication and skin in the game.

As of now the image we get is that only a few individuals are making the efforts and the systems have failed. Actually, the CM’s should sit back and let the system work. Their direct intervention would only complicate the situation. Political intervention should be minimal, only where it is required, and not for social media purposes. Irresponsible statements could lead to anarchy.  

There are reports that at present administrative officers in the districts are working continuously for 30 hours. This way the system will collapse soon. Systems need to be created for round the clock management of Covid rather than one person taking all the burden on himself.

The roles and responsibilities of those in authority should be laid out. Responsibility should be fixed; nobody should be allowed to get away in dereliction of duty, like what happened in Bengaluru and Delhi, where scores of people died in hospitals due to scarcity of oxygen.   

Another thing that the governments need to do is call an all-party meeting and take all the Opposition leaders in confidence. There have been times in history when countries have taken extraordinary support from the Opposition in the event of war and calamity.This exercise was done last year by PM Modi when the first wave hit India; it needs to be done again. It will help take speedy decisions based on consensus. Having taken the decisions the system should be allowed to work.

The crisis is not just in terms of oxygen, ICUs, and vaccines; it's also due to the shortage of doctors and medical staff. We have a little over 11.5 lakh allopathic doctors in the country, just about a doctor for every 1,457 persons. And if the Covid-19 wave continues to surge, we seem to be heading for a even bigger crisis.

The other day my colleague came up with an interesting concept. He said the governments should segregate vaccination and Covid and the treatment processes. The vaccination process should be done in government and private buildings rather than hospitals, which are highly infected and over-burdened. Nothing stops governments from entering into a private partnership for such endeavours.

Dr Anthony S Fauci, the chief medical advisor of the US has given some sane advice, think of lockdown for a few weeks, create a crisis management group to look into issues of oxygen, PPEs, medicines, create field hospitals like China, press military, and other national institution for distribution of oxygen and other essentials and lastly produce more and more vaccines. These are all important tips which should be given serious consideration.