25TH DAY OF MY SOCIAL
ISOLATION
4911 POSITIVE, 137 DEAD (2.79%),
382 RECOVERED (7.78%)
General Feeling: “Habit is a great asset. It can be built under any circumstances. I believe it’s a great evolutionary genius that allows us to be okay, in many difficult situations. Habit of staying in has kind of seeped in. It’s not all that bad, is what I hear people say, 2 weeks into this lock-down.”
We have completed two weeks into
an abrupt lock-down of a country that houses a 5th of the world’s
population. Without much preparation, without ensuring household and medical
supplies and cash availability, we went into hiding. It is important to remember
that top 1% of Indians hold 62% of all currency in the country, whereas top
0.1% hold 33%. What it means is that poorest 500 million Indians will be
without any cash reserve until 15th April and another 500 million
will only be left with half their reserves.
This has already begun to show
deadly outcomes as people do not have access to life-savings drugs and treatments
with the focus of the system having completely shifted to fighting COVID.
Tuberculosis, HIV, Diabetes, Dialysis, Blood Pressure, Asthma are some of the
morbidities that require continuous care, medication and supervision. People
who are poor and have illnesses (PS: Poverty and illness has a very high and an
obvious correlation.) And no, those staying in slums do not have higher
immunity. In-fact they are highly susceptible to diseases due to lower hygiene,
poor diet and limited access to health facilities.
And then there’s the basic
question of hunger.
Between 5000- 7000 die of hunger
in India, every day. India is also
the home to 1/3rd of the world’s hungry. It’s the largest killer in
the world. In India, we often wrap it nicely under the term ‘malnourished’.
With the lockdown and the consequent panic & exodus, the figures are sure
to have risen sharply. Unfortunately, hunger hasn’t gotten enough coverage and
no one’s reporting hunger deaths in India every day.
(PS: This figure does not include
infant mortality)
(Fun Fact: The government has
no official data on starvation deaths. This number has been estimated basis
various studies done by WHO, UNICEF and LANCET.)
Therefore a question to epidemiologists
is, whether COVID could be killing
5000-7000 people a day? If not, why are we fighting it like crazy? Let’s
take the route of developing herd immunity and perhaps losing a few in the journey.
It may sound like a really evil things to say. But let’s look at some facts to
take the discussion forward:-
1. Starvation
and Malnutrition kills and stunts the country’s youngest. As per a 2018 UNICEF
report, 38% of Indian children under the age of 5 suffered from stunting.
This is the lot
of the Indian population that we were supposed to be calling the ‘population dividend’. These are
potential producers and definite consumers. Both ways they help the consumption
based economy of this country. Plus, if they are healthy (and alive!) , they
may bring to the world beautiful, ingenious ideas across science, art, polity
or philosophy.
This is the group of the population that
represents “India’s future”
2. COVID-19,
on the other hand, kills the elderly. Especially the ones with co-morbidities. In
fact, it’s been noted that children are somehow able to fight off this
infectious disease without showing many symptoms. In a study of 1,099 patients in China, just 0.9 percent of
confirmed cases were under the age of nine, while only 1.2 percent were between
10 and 19 years old.
Therefore it’s only wiping out
the ageing population. This population, from a purely resource management point
of view is not productive. By no means should we therefore, let them die. We
must put in all our efforts to save any and every human life. At what cost,
though? That is a question for us to ponder upon and find answers to.
Isn’t this something that
politicians, economists, bureaucrats would know and take into account before
making policies? Or are we responding to an unseen emergency with such definitive
actions because it’s sensational? And it’s hurting the upper-classes and the
elite? Because, their lives matter and they need to be saved?
It’s probably lack of information
on my side that I only have questions with no clear answers. We need health
experts across the world to give us a non-biased view. And we need a little
empathy.
Sitting in our homes and staring
out of our windows has stripped us away from the sensorial understanding of
lives which are worse off than ours. We’re not seeing the road-side poverty and
mentally disturbed beggars knocking on our ubers for the last two weeks. We’re
not witnessing the stark difference in the food preferences of our house helps
and us.
We’ve been packed away with
internet at our disposal to watch & read what we prefer to. We have many
means of comfort and entertainment, at the press of a button.
Let’s take a moment to consider
what this lock-down has brought upon many others. Let’s take a moment to wish
well for them, and help them in any way we can.
These days, when people ask me
how I am, I tell them I am grateful for however I am, wherever I am.
(Video, Courtesy: https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/newsfeed/2020/04/india-coronavirus-lockdown-sees-exodus-cities-200406104405477.html_
Until tomorrow, prayers!
Interesting & Relevant Reads which are also the sources of many
things mentioned in this post:-
1. Possible
Biological Explanations for Kids’ Escape from COVID-19
2. Chinese
Study on Covid-19 and children
3. 8.8
lakh (0.88 million) children under 5 years (highest in the world) died in India –
UNICEF
4.
To read more on hunger across Indian states,
5.
Cash Distribution in India – Cashless Indians
after lockdown
1.
Expert Epidemiologist, Director and Senior
Fellow at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP),
on COVID in INDIA
Read today only due to preoccupied family problems. Your thoughts were worth publishing in reputed newspapers to initiate the process of thinking on the points raised, specifically w.r.t. cost of life / survival of our poor children and measures to improve......
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