#but if both of those things are Valid in any way then every rss/bjp functionary and every neocolonialist from the us government to the imf

[thevividgreenmoss]

On April 16, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, while reviewing the state of preparedness at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said: “We defeated the virus when we did not know much about it and we can do it again.” According to a release issued by his Ministry, he praised the contributions of the ‘corona warriors’ (health workers) and said: “With the fundamentals of the disease known, the task ahead would be comparatively easy.”

...After the first peak, the government had five months to put its house in order. It had enough time to suppress the virus through contact tracing but that window of opportunity was lost. The supplies of medical oxygen could have been organised earlier. The government itself had no clue about the second wave. Instead, it reacted to the surge with knee-jerk responses such as imposing curfews and placing the entire responsibility of COVID-appropriate behaviour on the public.

In early March, Frontline suggested that in view of the steady rise in the daily numbers of COVID infections, India could be well on the verge of a second wave (“Is India on the verge of a second Covid wave”, March 26, 2021).

At that time, the government did not think that the numbers were a cause for worry. In the latest weekly briefing by the Ministry, V.K. Paul, a senior NITI Aayog member who heads the National Task Force on COVID, said that people who had tested positive should consult ayurveda practitioners, consume immunity boosters such as Chyawanprash, do yoga, and drink kadha (a combination of herbs and spices).

When history is written, he said, it will be remembered how COVID was controlled in India, adding that it would also be written how the nation adopted these practices.

COVID second wave: Clueless Centre cannot hold

Interestingly, billionaires all over the world have added $5.1 trillion to their wealth as their governments followed “herd immunity” policies last year. Military spending has also increased globally while the health sectors in most of the countries affected by the pandemic are being neglected. In 2020, India spent only $8 billion on its health sector while splurging $66 billion on the military. Turkey spent $19 billion on its military.

A few Asian countries have shown the rest of the world the way to tackle the pandemic by implementing strict lockdowns when needed and adhering to a social distancing policy until the pandemic subsides globally. China has reported only 3,270 cases and two deaths so far this year. Vietnam reported 1,174 cases in 2021, with no deaths. Taiwan had 246 cases with three deaths this year. Only 5,009 COVID-19 deaths have been reported among China’s 1.4 billion people since COVID-19 was first identified in the city of Wuhan. In comparison, countries belonging to the Western alliance, including the U.S. and the European Union (E.U.), with a population of over 941 million, have so far recorded over 1.4 million COVID-19 deaths.

...Countries under illegal U.S sanctions such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela have an additional burden to bear in pandemic times. The Joe Biden administration has been as unrelenting as its predecessor on the issue of sanctions. Iran was badly hit by the first COVID wave last year and has been suffering since then. The long-running U.S. sanctions have had an adverse impact on the country’s health system anyway, with essential drugs off the shelf for more than a decade. Since the pandemic began, Iran has received only a few 1,00,000 doses of the vaccine from China, Russia and South Korea. The latest surge has led to the hospitalisation of 21,000 Iranians by the first week of April. There is no space in public hospitals. Like in India, those in need of intensive care are seen sleeping on the floors of various hospitals in Teheran and other major cities.

In second COVID wave, Asia and Latin America suffer acute shortage of vaccines, health sectors overwhelmed