We failed !
Covid 19 came like a typhoon, which no weatherman predicted. It literally took the world by storm and the ruins are left to see and just when we started to slowly pick our lives up, we found ourselves in the middle of a deadlier second wave which has torn us apart and left us vulnerable, alone and hurt. We are hurting, we have lost family , friends, colleagues and livelihoods, all for things beyond our control. We failed as a country.
We failed to stop election rallies, religious gatherings and protests. — Our biggest failure, No one forced us to go, our leaders could have done token pujas or e rallies or protests, it would have set the trend, would have also probably lost the battles, but we would have been better prepared for this war. After being in the strictest lockdown, across the planet, for more then 5 months, while BLM protests were on across the globe, we stepped off the pedal, we opened up and we could not have done it at a worse time. We let our guard down, we failed.
We failed to create vaccines — We gave support to our indigenous vaccine makers, too little and definitely too late. While NIH and Govts in western world basically ran and ramped up production for vaccines, we sent out valuable HCQ to almost 75 countries on a war footing and even lifted ban on exports when it was supposed to be a cure for Covid in early April / May of 2020, but sadly we had to depend on critical raw material which was held up for our own production, by the very same nations. We depend on others, we delayed, we dithered, we failed.
We failed to vaccinate — We have been extremely slow to ramp up production, in spite of being the production home of two vaccines, one home grown. We hear stories of vaccines drying up across India while raw material was being held up and hoarded just as they did to toilet paper. However we did vaccinate till April 28, as much as UK, Brazil, Germany, France and Turkey and some have done COMBINED. We are probably vaccinating a New Zealand every two days. But with so many left, We failed.
We crumbled with our medical infrastructure — No oxygen, no beds, no ventilators, scramble for medicines. As the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was slowing last year, India had a little more than 1.5 million isolation beds for a population of 1.38 billion. In all, there were a total of 80,583 ICU beds for Covid patients, and about half of these were ventilator beds. These numbers were no doubt small yet seemed adequate as the transmission of the virus was relatively slow. Come 2021, the virus mutated, it began to engulf us and our infrastructure began to crumble with the sheer numbers, panic and the rumours. We failed.
We failed our people, There are millions of people dying. Mass pyres and funerals are being beamed across networks and publications.. We did fail, not only with their lives, but also in the dignity of their death. No one deserves to die this way, and certainly not be broadcasted this way. No of deaths in India is still half of US and less then Brazil, but not only our own media, but as did the western media which so diligently guarded their own, made our sorrows into death porn. We failed
So India, while we failed, we will survive
And when this will pass, we will thrive
But India,
Remember the ones who abandoned us, remember the ones who shielded us,
Remember the ones who put their own before us & the ones who gave themselves to us
Remember the ones who made vile generalisations
Remember the ones with their pontifications
And to paraphrase (in parts) Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.