Covid-19 - Devastating Second Wave in India - Updates and Discussion

[Daghalodi]

 

[N.Siddiqui]

View attachment 738508

Kuch dair baad munh per pahan liya tha...

 

[UKBengali]

Pakistan looks like it is succeeding at stabilising the situation.

7 day average daily cases has gone down by 1%.

BD is really bringing it under control as cases are still going down by 2-3% a day and has more than halved from peak 2-3 weeks ago.

This proves that current measures are working. India variant is most likely already circulating in BD as the economic and travel links are extensive and the border was only closed on Monday.

I think we should be cautious but as long as an adequate amount of social-distancing is maintained then there is no chance of Pakistan facing what is happening in India. Remember Indians went to a "free-for-all" with mass religious gatherings and even election rallies which Pakistan will not allow.

 

[Suriya]

Have you even read the report you are quoting?

@dbc we have another case of deliberate false accusations.

LOL.... false accusation? Read the latest report on it.

What We Know About Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandal

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has been accused of deliberately obscuring the full scope of nursing home deaths in New York. The F.B.I. is investigating.

www.nytimes.com

 

[jamahir]

The India society is mosaic, factions interests dominated, chaotic.

The leadership is absent, busy on elections after elections, please voter bank, putting national interest aside.

Exactly !

The various political parties spend time in emotionally appealing to the language-based or religion-based prejudices of their vote bank, instead of presenting scientific and rational argument to the masses. The parties appeal thus to become installed into government power and not to properly develop the country.

For example, the AIADMK has as its vote bank the Tamils, the AIMIM has as its vote bank the Muslims and of course the BJP has as its vote bank the Hindus ( especially the Upper Caste middle class Hindus ).

Any voice arises of the sensible left-wingers or centrists the dominant right-wing immediately tells the first and second types that they are "anti-national" and that they should "Go to Pakistan". This is the "polite" way. Another way is dragging the left-wingers and centrists through the courts on sedition charges. Another way is straightaway assassination of the progressives.

Who changed the fate of China? The CCP and the greatest revolution.

India never went through any revolution in past 100 years, the legacy, good and bad all kept.

The old colonized society, good and bad culture, religions, cults, landlords, Zamindaris, they kept their influence and increasingly more influential.

The Communist Party of India was formed in 1920 in Soviet Tashkent by a small group of people but later attracted many. But unfortunately it broke up into factions.

One of these factions ( I don't remember the name ) started armed uprising among the peasants and farmers of the Naxalbari area in West Bengal state in the 1960s. This uprising was against the zamindars ( feudal landlords ) and inspired by Mao's communist revolution in China. I don't know why feudalism existed in India two decades after the country's independence. The uprising was crushed by full State power.

Fast forward to 2021 and the Naxalite guerrillas are still fighting the state. There a few thousand Naxalites and about 200,000 government forces fighting them. The Naxalites are the underground leftist movement in India.

A few years ago I wanted to join one of the public communist groups here and I met that groups's State Secretary for my state. I had two or three discussions with him and he told me that his group wants communist change by working within the scope of the country's Constitution. Unfortunately I didn't ask him how will this happen. And like I said earlier, being a progressive in India is not easy. This gentleman once had his house attacked by 20 to 25 RSS thugs who were looking to kill him. Fortunately he wasn't at home.

 

[TNT]

The thing is most of u here are not aware of reality of life in Pakistan. Its like someone told the princess that ppl are dying of thurst and she says why dont they drink juices and milk. The same mentality is portrayed by few here. You call them jahil but u ppl urself are dumb and dont know the situation of a daily wagers. There are people that will have no food if they dont work for few days. They dont have good jobs and savings or dont live off the money earned by ur dady. Tell me what will those ppl do in a total lockdown? What help that 12000 Rs would have done u think?? If a person will die of hunger if he doznt work for few days then that person will damn care about covid.

 

[Clutch]

Covid in India: Why is the government playing down the crisis?

Because India is not a democracy. It is a religious extremist theocracy

 

[Norwegian]

Workers in New Delhi on Tuesday building new platforms for cremating bodies, as the coronavirus takes an increasing toll on the country.

India Blames a Virus Variant as Its Covid-19 Crisis Deepens

• By Jeffrey Gettleman, Shalini Venugopal and Apoorva Mandavilli

Photographs by Atul Loke

• Published April 28, 2021Updated April 29, 2021, 12:22 a.m. ET

Doctors, the public and the media point to anecdotal evidence of infections even among the vaccinated. Scientists say the data is too thin and cite other reasons behind the country’s second wave.
NEW DELHI — At Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, a huge facility in the middle of India’s capital, 37 fully vaccinated doctors came down with Covid-19 earlier this month.
The infections left most with mild symptoms, but it added to their growing fears that the virus behind India’s catastrophic second wave is different. They wonder if a more contagious variant that dodges the immune system could be fueling the epidemic inside the world’s hardest-hit nation.
So far the evidence is inconclusive, and researchers caution that other factors could explain the viciousness of the outbreak, which has overwhelmed India’s capital so quickly that hospitals are entirely overrun and crematories burn nonstop. Still, the presence of the variant could complicate the taming of India’s Covid-19 disaster.

“The current wave of Covid has a different clinical behavior,” said Dr. Sujay Shad, a senior cardiac surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where two of the doctors needed supplemental oxygen to recover. “It’s affecting young adults. It’s affecting families. It’s a new thing altogether. Two-month-old babies are getting infected.”
How to Help India
Donors are giving money for meals, medical expenses, P.P.E. and oxygen tanks, among other essential supplies, during the Covid crisis.
India’s outbreak worsened even further on Wednesday, as the authorities reported nearly 3,300 daily deaths. That brings the official total to nearly 201,200 people lost, though experts believe the true figure is much higher. Daily new infections also surged to nearly 357,700, another record.

Image
Patients receiving oxygen in the back of a rickshaw outside a Sikh house of worship in New Delhi this week. A lack of oxygen and other supplies has led to pleas for help online.

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Waiting to refill empty oxygen tanks.

As supplies run dangerously low and hospitals are forced to turn away the sick, scientists are trying to determine what role variants of the virus might be playing. They are working with precious little data. India, like many other countries, has not built up a robust system to track viruses.
India’s worries have focused on a homegrown variant called B.1.617. The public, the popular press and many doctors have concluded that it is responsible for the severity of the second wave.
Researchers outside of India say the limited data so far suggests instead that a better-known variant called B.1.1.7 may be a more considerable factor. That variant walloped Britain late last year, hit much of Europe and is now the most common source of new infection in the United States.
“While it’s almost certainly true B.1.617 is playing a role, it’s unclear how much it’s contributing directly to the surge and how that compares to other circulating variants, especially B.1.1.7,” said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.

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A mass cremation in New Delhi on Tuesday.

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Performing last rites in New Delhi for someone who died from the coronavirus.

Beyond the variants, scientists believe there are other, possibly more obvious factors that could be powering India’s deadly second wave.
India has just scraped the surface in terms of vaccinating its population, with less than 2 percent fully vaccinated. Experts also blame lax public behavior after last year’s first wave and missteps by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, such as recently holding large political rallies that may have spread the disease and sent a message to the people that the worst was over.

“There is a lot of jumping to conclusions that B.1.167 is the explanation for what’s happening,” said Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Britain. “These other things are probably more likely to be the explanation.”
Preliminary evidence suggests that the variant is still responsive to vaccines, although slightly less so. India relies heavily on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which clinical trials show is less powerful than the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and could perhaps be more easily thwarted by mutations.
“For now the vaccines remain effective, but there is a trend toward less effectiveness,” said Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at Bellevue Hospital in New York.

In India, a number of doctors point to anecdotal evidence that people who have been fully vaccinated are getting sick. Those doctors also say they are seeing children with serious symptoms, such as severe diarrhea, acidosis and falling blood pressure, even among otherwise healthy patients.
“This is very different from what we saw last year,” said Dr. Soonu Udani, head of critical care services at the SRCC Children’s Hospital in Mumbai.

Image
Health workers testing recent arrivals at a train station in Mumbai earlier this month.

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A mostly deserted vaccination center in Mumbai earlier this month, when a lockdown limited visitors.
Researchers say other factors could lead to more infections among young people, such as India’s schools, which had started reopening in recent months after the country’s first wave.
The variant in India is sometimes called “the double mutant,” though the name is a misnomer because it has many more mutations than two. It garnered the name because one of its three versions contains two genetic mutations found in other difficult-to-control variants of the coronavirus. One is present in the highly contagious variant that ripped through California earlier this year. The other is similar to one found in the variant first identified in South Africa and is believed to make the vaccines slightly less effective.
“There are variants that are more transmissible than what we all coped with a year ago,” Dr. Barrett said of the many variants circulating in India. “Things can change really quickly, so if a country doesn’t react quickly enough, things can go from bad to very bad very quickly.”
Scientists say that different variants seem to dominate specific parts of India. For instance, the B.1.617 variant has been detected in a large number of samples from the central state of Maharashtra.
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Continue reading the main story

By contrast, the B.1.1.7 variant is rising quickly in New Delhi, said Dr. Sujeet Singh, director of India’s National Centre for Disease Control. It was prevalent in half of samples evaluated at the end of March, up from 28 percent just two weeks before. The B.1.617 variant is also circulating in New Delhi, he added.
But ultimately, the data from India is too thin to parse the distribution of variants around the country. Despite the huge number of new infections, India is performing very little genomic sequencing.

Image
The empty streets of Mumbai during a weekend lockdown in mid-April.

Image
Police officers checking the credentials of commuters during the lockdown in Mumbai.


In December, the government tapped a group of 10 laboratories and set an ambitious target to sequence 5 percent of samples across the country every month. But so far, less than 1 percent of samples collected has been sequenced. A report in The Wire, an Indian online publication, pointed to logistical challenges, bureaucratic red tape and the lack of funding as some of the reasons.
“They simply aren’t well-resourced enough, as sophisticated as their scientists and doctors might be,” Dr. Gounder said.
Apart from Britain, few other countries have been monitoring variants closely. The United States was also sequencing less than 1 percent of samples and ramped up its efforts only in recent weeks.
Officials in India are trying to track how many fully vaccinated people have fallen ill, a measure called the breakthrough infection rate. That could suggest how virulent any variant in India might be. They have focused on frontline medical workers, who are more likely to have received both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
So far, data from the Indian Council of Medical Research up to April 21 shows an extremely low breakthrough infection rate, though perhaps not as low as that of the United States. The data shows 0.02 percent to 0.04 percent of vaccinated people falling ill. The rate in the United States, which relies on different vaccines, is 0.008 percent.

Image
Health workers checking the temperatures of residents of Dharavi, a district home to many low-income migrant workers, in Mumbai earlier this month.

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Waiting in line for free food in Dharavi during a lockdown earlier this month.

At Sir Ganga Ram hospital, the 37 doctors who became infected after immunization had received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine between late January to early February and then their second dose four to six weeks after that. The hospital employs about 500 doctors.

Dr. Shad, the cardiac surgeon, was reluctant to jump to conclusions about variants breaking through the immunizations. “I don’t think anyone has the serological data” to answer that, he said.
A broad lack of data plagues the scientific chase for variants and whether they are contributing to the severity of India’s crisis. Fast-moving mutations complicate the picture because it isn’t immediately clear how quickly they spread or how they respond to vaccines.
In India, the health care system wasn’t on alert for the impact of variants at home, even as they began to spread globally, said Dr. Thekkekara Jacob John, a senior virologist in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
“We were not looking for variants at all,” he said. “In other words, we missed the boat.”

Image
Relatives in protective gear performing last rites for a man who died of the coronavirus, at a Hindu cremation center in the outskirts of Mumbai last week.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

 

[-=virus=-]

1. Most Indians are fatalists who typically blame themselves for any shortcomings in their lives. They don't blame the system thus they don't feel the need to change the system. There is a saying among Indians which in English translates to "Spread out your legs only as long as the mattress". Most Indians are not ambitious, especially the vision they have for society.

2. When many Indians organize they do so as a mob and not as a scientific group with progressive aims. Being extremely religious adds more fuel to this fire.

3. Many Indians don't have empathy. Even the report of 300,000+ Indian farmers having committed suicide within ten years because of artificial, socio-economic reasons, this doesn't move many Indians.

Thus I think these three points are why many, if not most, Indians, including the middle class, especially the middle class, doesn't rise up in revolutionary thinking.

Maybe the UNO should govern India for some years.

To feed you 3 meals a day, pay for your house and every time you need to visit a doctor ?

This is pure greed on your part, evil eyeing everyone's money looking for free everything.

Why would people not prioritize their family and kids over you when it comes to providing for them ?

you're a shameless bhikari/muftkhor/harami for expecting everyone else to pay your bills.

ok, time to go feed my neighbourhood strays my leftover biriyani and kebabs.

 

[Vapnope]

Where is @andhadhund? The guy kept yapping about how Kumbh participants were all vaccinated and blah blah blah.

 

[jamahir]

To feed you 3 meals a day, pay for your house and every time you need to visit a doctor ?

This is pure greed on your part, evil eyeing everyone's money looking for free everything.

You are confusing Communism with the tax-driven North European "welfare state" countries.

In a proper communist society the traditional money system would have been abolished and what would replace it will be a system where everyone will have potentially equal access to all the goods and services within the society provided that the people will contribute their bit to society. "From each according to his abilities".

Read this thread of mine where I propose a new economic system.

ok, time to go feed my neighbourhood strays my leftover biriyani and kebabs.

View attachment 738518

Right, while humans in India die of hunger or are forced to do this.

 

[Leishangthem]

Things might have been not so worse if India had picked the right ally.When you have the audacity to play superpower when it's not your forte,a scam can only work so much ,now left naked before whole world as a consequence.

Pakistan looks like it is succeeding at stabilising the situation.

7 day average daily cases has gone down by 1%.

BD is really bringing it under control as cases are still going down by 2-3% a day and has more than halved from peak 2-3 weeks ago.

This proves that current measures are working. India variant is most likely already circulating in BD as the economic and travel links are extensive and the border was only closed on Monday.

I think we should be cautious but as long as an adequate amount of social-distancing is maintained then there is no chance of Pakistan facing what is happening in India. Remember Indians went to a "free-for-all" with mass religious gatherings and even election rallies which Pakistan will not allow.

Bangladesh and Pakistan will always fare better,they both picked the right ally and don't try to put up a superpower front when it's beyond their capability and a notion simply not real. BD & pak has strong supply chain link with china and constantly working with Chinese experts in tackling the virus and they both already part of china's South Asian vaccine umbrella union.

In short, lack of vision, leadership.
As I said before, India is a disorganized, dysfunctional society. India need a revolution.

Fabianism dividend has come to the end.

The age of revolution is far gone,great atrocities already happens in India,India can't take a revolution,the humanitarian atrocities will be at a scale previously unconceived .

 

[vi-va]

Exactly !

The various political parties spend time in emotionally appealing to the language-based or religion-based prejudices of their vote bank, instead of presenting scientific and rational argument to the masses. The parties appeal thus to become installed into government power and not to properly develop the country.

For example, the AIADMK has as its vote bank the Tamils, the AIMIM has as its vote bank the Muslims and of course the BJP has as its vote bank the Hindus ( especially the Upper Caste middle class Hindus ).

Any voice arises of the sensible left-wingers or centrists the dominant right-wing immediately tells the first and second types that they are "anti-national" and that they should "Go to Pakistan". This is the "polite" way. Another way is dragging the left-wingers and centrists through the courts on sedition charges. Another way is straightaway assassination of the progressives.



The Communist Party of India was formed in 1920 in Soviet Tashkent by a small group of people but later attracted many. But unfortunately it broke up into factions.

One of these factions ( I don't remember the name ) started armed uprising among the peasants and farmers of the Naxalbari area in West Bengal state in the 1960s. This uprising was against the zamindars ( feudal landlords ) and inspired by Mao's communist revolution in China. I don't know why feudalism existed in India two decades after the country's independence. The uprising was crushed by full State power.

Fast forward to 2021 and the Naxalite guerrillas are still fighting the state. There a few thousand Naxalites and about 200,000 government forces fighting them. The Naxalites are the underground leftist movement in India.

A few years ago I wanted to join one of the public communist groups here and I met that groups's State Secretary for my state. I had two or three discussions with him and he told me that his group wants communist change by working within the scope of the country's Constitution. Unfortunately I didn't ask him how will this happen. And like I said earlier, being a progressive in India is not easy. This gentleman once had his house attacked by 20 to 25 RSS thugs who were looking to kill him. Fortunately he wasn't at home.

Thanks. I am aware of that. I can't say I am familiar with India history and politics, but I knew some, there is a book worth reading
India's Political Economy: The Gradual Revolution (1947-2004) by Francine R. Frankel

Amazon.com

I think they are Bernsteinism. Historically Bernsteinism movement all failed.

Eduard Bernstein - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[-=virus=-]

You are confusing Communism with the tax-driven North European "welfare state" countries.

In a proper communist society the traditional money system would have been abolished and what would replace it will be a system where everyone will have potentially equal access to all the goods and services within the society provided that the people will contribute their bit to society. "From each according to his abilities".

Read this thread of mine where I propose a new economic system.

and where has the traditional money system ever been abolished ?

that's some seriously deluded commie garbage you're sprouting... anyway, I'm not paying your electricity, rent and doctor bills.

Right, while humans in India die of hunger or are forced to do this.

one of the great tragedies of the lockdown was the poor stray dogs who went hungry.

some in my family got special permission from the police so they could go and feed the poor doggos.

I love stray dogs, I hate random strangers who expect me to pay for their meals

dogs > commies any day !

 

[jamahir]

and where has the traditional money system ever been abolished ?

that's some seriously deluded commie garbage you're sprouting...

Until January this year Cuba had a dual currency system.

But my proposal is simple. Read through it and speak of it among others. This is how revolutions start or spread.

one of the great tragedies of the lockdown was the poor stray dogs who went hungry.

some in my family got special permission from the police so they could go and feed the poor doggos.

So when Sonu Sood and Chef Vikas Khanna were feeding desperately hungry people, when reverse migrants were dying of hunger on trains and roads you and your family were feeding dogs. You even have an affectionate word for them - "doggos". Your 35+ million "doggos" have are dangerous. They attack and kill humans and cats and must be removed. If you live in Kerala you will know of the anti-stray-dog sentiment among many people there.

You should review your thoughts.