We 80+ are worried about the direction Covid is taking the world.


While cases of Covid 19  keeps going up, it has been so since last year,
the dubious honor of being number one country
in Covid cases and death  kept changing. 
It is now India's turn! Calling it a war against the Virus feels ridiculous. It is science, protocol and discipline. We are dependent on research scientists, experts in the field of health and the front line workers to cope with the Virus. And there is need for discipline, actually self-discipline.
WHO, which  declared the onset of a pandemic first, shares  all the data to  guide countries to cope. I assume that the team in India dealing with Covid are making use of it . If they have deviated from this it must be for a good reason.
 It is heartening to see UN stepping in  to help India in many ways including sending critical supplies. "UNICEF has consistently worked to counter misinformation and promote Covid 19 appropriate behaviors including wearings masks, physical distancing and hand washing. (Sadly this mantra was  not followed seriously!)
It is heartening that the world came forward to help when India was taken unawares with the recent surge of positive cases and struggled with the shortages of oxygen, beds equipment etc.,.
The sudden shortage of vaccine after making a good start is disturbing. I guess the government will pay a price, if it is seen to be entirely at fault. Not that the opposition has covered itself with any glory with its type of attack on the government.
Vaccines are the best bet so far; medicines are yet to be proven. What is worrying is the way the numbers of death has shot up during the second wave. Vaccine and its shortage is engaging our noise makers on TV as expected.
I am not a regular watcher. This one caught my eye.
The BJP spokes person is on the defensive obviously.
The body language disturbs me! So do the smiles!

Let's hope there is a serious study to establish the causes why the total number  of dead has risen so high. It is surely required as a third wave is predicted. It should be transparent and not just to provide ammunition for either the government or opposition to fire at each other at their daily cable TV battles! 
The article, The Statistical Secrets of Covid-19 Vaccines, is interesting, needs a bit of maths! It is a complex subject for sure. The bottom line is there is no 100% guarantee! 
The article explains the way science works as well about the hesitancy in people to get vaccinated. You could read it to get a perspective and its terminologies like 'efficacy', 'absolute risk' and NNV
"The creation and distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 has been as close as science gets to a miracle—the culmination of centuries of infectious disease research, a mastery of viral genomics, the creation of a whole new kind of vaccinology, and speed in the face of crisis."

My last two blogs elicited a few comments which I feel is worth repeating 
Sethu Belur was  shocked at the number of birds which died in one country, 40 million, due to industrial activity. Dr. Raghunath, a super senior, posted the comment below on whether  the then president Trump alone was the cause for such thoughtless actions which endangered life of  migratory birds? 
Nice compilation. The single person is a symptom of the pervading callousness of humanity. Unfortunately the ability to shape our environment to suit our 'needs' wreaks havoc on nature. You may have noticed that when human activity is curtailed nature does bounce back though I am not sure how long the ability will last if we proceed along the present lines. The selfishness of the West with regard to share the vaccine resources shows how depraved we are as a species. Thank God we have seen better days and will not in all probability see the worst!!
Another  super senior Chandramouli reacted to an earlier blog: 
Are you saying wake up, everybody, apocalypse is here for everybody, except may be not for the lucky vaccinated, super seniors and seniors; front-liners....who could endure it, survive and ......do what? Stare into the fog of chaos, of society, government, bureaucrats and the corrupt ?
Where you can also see, hope in the shadows of the resilient adventurous compassionate young ?
or are you yelling  "It’s all over people, no matter what you do now, It may not work".. or are you saying all will be well?
My reply :There was neither an attempt to answer questions nor predict the future. 
It was the time when individual battles of my young friends that filled my being! 


Comments

moorthy said…
It's a bizzare situation. As the saying goes, we 'did not know what hit us' when most Indians thought we had negotiated the hump successfully. Akin to the scenario in Mahabharata. At the end of the war, the Pandava's thought they vanquished their enemies, and were smug in their victory - but in the darkness of the night Aswaththama atacks and kills the Upapandavas! We forgot the famous cine dialogue "picture abhi baaqi hai". And, politicians and Media cannot stop playing theirgames. Extremely sad indeed.

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