Second Deadly Corona wave- Who is responsible for such devastation?
18 May 2021 10:51:12
Indians thought that this deadly Corona virus had vanished and by Feb 2021 we were in a happy state of mind and focus was on rejuvenating economy, getting out of lock down syndrome and in a way a feeling of having defeated the enemy- a victory of sorts. Another shot in the arm was that several Vaccines to immunize the world were right round the corner. India being the hub of vaccine manufacturing was surely on top and we had two vaccines- Covishield and Covaxin in hand. Focus was on how to immunize such a large population of 1.3 billion plus spread across 29 states and 7 Union Territories’. Obviously there was a roll out plan and it was decided to start a controlled, calibrated vaccination drive for the nation on a war footing. Main Idea of vaccination was to first immunize those who were most vulnerable. Front like health care workers, doctors and Security forces were in this bucket. In addition, elderly above 60 years of age and people with co morbidities, above 45 years were catered for.
The scheme was rolled out on first march 2021 and the vaccination was available for these groups free of cost at Government hospitals and at a nominal cost of Rs 250/- at private hospitals. Initially there was vaccine hesitancy in public at large because it had been developed and trials carried out in double quick time. An air of doubt was also created by politicians from the opposition and social media enthusiasts which impacted and impeded this drive initially. Most political leaders in power reached out to people to assure them about safety and efficacy to convince them to get vaccinated in their own interest. India did extremely well and within a month plus 130 million ie 13 Crore people got at least one jab of either of the two vaccines. Vaccinating 130 Crore people is a humungous task but we started with a bang and averaged almost half a million jabs a day.
Just to appreciate India’s challenge, population of Sri Lanka is 2.2 crore, Israel is 90 lacks and Uttar Pradesh (one state alone) is 20 crore plus. India 135 corers,size wise you are comparing berries to watermelons! So far so good.
In the middle of this appeared the second wave with new mutants to add to the problem and hit the nation as a Tsunami. This time the infection spread very fast and India stared clocking more than 3 lac new cases and thousands dying every day. The system was not ready to take this surge. Shortage of Hospital beds, ICU, Ventilators and Oxygen supply and medicines were in short supply. Doctors, hospital staff and testing labs were working round the clock to keep pace with this deluge.
Once there is a war like crisis, there is chaos and tempers fly high, people, especially relatives and friends of the patients get out of control, often manhandling the hospital staff, who are in fact helpless. Since they are visible and are present on the spot, they face the brunt. The most visible, dependable leader of 1.3 billion people is PM Narendra Modi. A common man expects him to anticipate everything and immediately find a solution. So he becomes a target of criticism by all and sundry.
Who failed to see this coming is the question that comes to mind? When you say Government was found napping what does this mean? To govern a country as large as India, there is a proper federal structure in place, with well defined roles. There are 29 states and 7 UT’s each having a head of that state. They have a full fledged secretariat with adequate staff to perform different functions. Health is a state function and everything related to health care including licensing for hospitals, increasing capacity, equipment, staffing, budgeting is done by the individual state. Monitoring of state needs is also done by the state and every state has a health minister and has at least three to four senior bureaucrats as health secretary, additional secretary health, deputy secretaries/directors. Many are from IAS cadre.
A back of the envelop calculation would tell us that total 36 entities ie states and UT’s put together would have 36 ministers and 36*4 = 144 bureaucrats, a total of 180 people looking into health issues of 1.3 Billion Indians. In addition there is a cabinet minister for health at the central govt. He also has a Minister of state MOS. The secretariat has ones health secretary, at least 3 additional secretaries, a dozen join secretaries and score plus Deputy secretaries/directors. This is a good bunch of around 30 intellectuals many of them from the elite IAS cadre.
Club this with state infrastructure of senior politicians and bureaucrats the number is a healthy 210 people totally responsible only for one thing- health of the people. Cost to the exchequer for having this grey matter ticking would be astronomical (let us not go there). None of these people directly responsible to man the fortress of health could anticipate the ferocity of the second wave? And there were past precedence’s from countries in the west that had faced and suffered second wave. As a result there was a shortage of almost everything- Beds, medicine and oxygen.
You cannot blame the doctors or the nursing staff for this at all. Political leadership is always briefed by concerned staff, military or otherwise. Information flows from bottom upwards and not top down in every case. The steel frame of bureaucracy missed it and missed it big way. Unfortunately they are now hiding behind the pillars leave aside facing the media who is punching the visible icons. In all fairness this is not fair.
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