When the world is going through this deadly pandemic and the recovery form it is still uncertain, we sitting at home, counting the number of infections and corpses around the world, many-many angels in white coat are out and trying hard to stave off this death-dealing virus.
They are well aware of the fact that they can get infected too with the virus still they are putting their life at stake and blowing every breath of their life in the service of humanity.
We are sitting at home and watching Ramayana, movies on Netflix and Amazon and TV debates in which one panelist is pinning up the blame of spreading virus on another, while the doctors on duty, all they can see is death. They are fighting for a cause that no army in the annul of mankind could fight for and in future would fight for.
The humanity is on the verge of its existence and the doctors are the walls that have somehow stopped the virus from sweeping the world.
We as a part of society in which both the virus and doctors are living, are doing enough for them? And the answer is deep silence. Showering flowers on the hospital buildings, clapping from the plushy and safe balcony are of course not enough, but providing them enough PPEs— Personal Protection Kits would have been better to return the favor.
On March 13, The Municipal Corporation Doctors Association (MCDA) in Delhi has threated to resign en masse over the pending salaries. “In a letter to the Prime Minister, MCDA general secretary Dr Maruti Singh said doctors are in “dire economic distress” and demanded that their salaries and arrears be paid in the next five days. Singh claimed that the last salary they received was for the month of January, moneycontrol.com reported.
When the people who are not fighting COVID-19, and are getting paid, then why not doctors who have been on the frontline fight the virus?
India registered its first case on January 30. And after two months on March 30 it had 1251 cases in total including 102 recovered and 31 dead. At that time, having the lockdown imposed on March 25, it would had caught under control, if the government had imposed the lockdown successfully, as it claims.
India had the advantage of getting the deadly virus late, after a month when the first case of COVID-19 registered in China. It means, India had an extra month for preparation. But seemingly, it didn’t.
After declaring its first case on 30th January, on 31st January Indian parliament started budget session and was adjourned sine die on 23rd March due to spread of coronavirus. In between parliamentarians kept asking question about the novel coronavirus and government showed no interest in tackling the emergence of COVID-19. India started universal screening from March 4th, and that too only in respect to few countries such as China, Italy, Malaysia Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Iran. By that time there was 300000 infections and 14500 deaths around the world.
Government came into action when the actress Kanika Kapoor get infected and some parliamentarians who shared space with her including ex-chief minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje and her son Rana Dushyant Singh, who visited President Ramnath Kovind later, which raised panic in India.
On March 13th ‘Ministry of Health’ said, COVID-19 is not a health emergency no need to panic. By the time India had 82 cases. On the same day, Islamic Republic of Iran had 10075 active COVID-19 cases. It is clear that India did not learn from adversely infected countries when the severity of the virus was before us and we waited for virus to wreak destruction.
When members of the Trinamool Congress came to the Rajya Sabha wearing protective masks but were ordered by Naidu to take them off. However, when senior Congress leader P Chidambaram urged Naidu to allow MPs to decide on using protective gear, he agreed. On March 18th when Rajya Sabha MPs demanded to curtail budget session then the Vice-President Naidu said, members can take preventive arrangements. Venkiah Naidu is a former cabinet minister and also the Vice-President of India.
Where the world went wrong?
If we talk about containing the COVID-19 in China only then we can say, YES! China could have stopped it. If the Chinese government had checked the spread of coronavirus and had acted accordingly.
For example, Wei Guixan, the patient zero of Novel coronavirus, according to many media reports, developed the symptoms in the starting of December 2019. She went to local clinic, believing she is going through common cold. She was given an injection then, however she continued to feel weak and visited several hospitals.
She kept feeling lethargic and Wei visited the best hospital in the region—Wuhan Union Hospital on December 16.
At the Union Hospital, Wei was told that her sickness was ruthless and that many from Wuhan’s seafood market in which she works had visited the hospital with alike symptoms.
At the end of December Wei was quarantined when doctor related the emergence of coranavirus with the seafood market.
That was the time when the Chinese authorities had to take the cognizance of the virus. Doctors must have told the authority that the coronavirus is of zoonotic nature which means it can be transmitted from animal to people and able to adapt new host.
It was the high time when the precautionary measures such as lock down and travel ban should had been imposed in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
On 31st December WHO China country office was informed of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in the city of Wuhan, China.
And after one month, on January 30 WHO declared public health emergency of international concern. WHO took month to declare the virus an emergency even when the coronavirus had crossed the China’s boundary. On January 13th first case of novel coronavirus was detected in Thailand. According to WHO website, “it was expected that case of the novel coronavirus good emerge outside of China.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, has declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic. By the time, China had 142823 COVID-19 cases, Italy had 9172, Republic of Korea-7513, and Iran had 7161.
On January 22nd US got its first case of coronavirus and the President Donald Trump said “we have it total under control it’s going to be just fine.”
When WHO declared COVID-19, a public health emergency, Trump said
We have very little problem in this country at this moment.
Later trump coined his own theory that that coronavirus will simply die out as weather gets warmer. While many doctors are still uncertain about its end and many doctors have predicted that it will last until spring 2021.
As of now, US has 1.4 million infections and more than 83000 deaths.
US President did not stop there, he continued declining the severity of coronavirus and called it a ‘new hoax’ by Democrats on 28 February.
Meanwhile the prime minister of England Boris Johnson did not adhere to social distancing until he got infected and his government said;
People get used to dying and see loved ones dying.
When this is all over, and we standing on the other side of COVID-19, would realize that there is no scope for caste, race, creed, gender or religion in politics, if the politics is really for the betterment and welfare of humanity. There is need of infrastructure and a team of rational people who would govern the world.
When the coronavirus is done with the world, we will owe a different world to doctors. And I know it is a debt that no super-power in the world or the world’s biggest economy would ever be able to pay off.
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