Coronavirus Part 43, Restoring the Good Lives, Stupidity of Developed World

 

               The covid-19 cases in the country have returned to rise from the past 2 weeks. This week as well, there is a rise in the number of seven-day average cases from 38 thousand to 42 thousand. The number of active cases in the country also saw a rise from 3.68 lakh last week to 4.1 lakh, a 40 thousand increase in one week. Out of the 36 states and UTs, 31 are registering a mere three and two digit cases whereas the remaining 5 are posing problems. Even less, two states are accounting for 80% of cases and just one state is logging 70% of cases. These 5-6 states which are accounting for 91% of the cases in the country are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Mizoram – 5 from the South and one from North East. The sister states of South are going hand-in-hand in registering new infections. This trend is continuing since long and needs to be curtailed sooner than later.

               We owe our present situation to covid warriors who worked day-in and day-out to fight the pandemic. If not for them, the pandemic could have taken any form and shape. The covid warriors are the reason people have emerged from the treacherous lockdown, returning back to life and everything is opening up in most of the country. Let us not forget and give full priority to the pandemic which has affected most of our lives. Defeating it, decreasing the loss and restoring normality are an urgent necessity of the present times. Along with warriors let everyone of us become a warrior and evolve to be one as quickly as possible to devolve the virus. The evolution of pandemic has negatively affected a vast majority of the population and only a good healing can bring relief to all of us.

               In this context, let us work towards creating a positive ‘pandemic democracy’. It means most of the people affected are not permanently degraded by their loss, their fortunes are revived, brought back on track after healing and continue to lead a same if not better life than prior to the pandemic. The effects and after effects of pandemic should rollback to pave way for good times and bright future. They should forget this dark phase and become normal again with new aspirations, goals and good life in general. As the warriors it is our collective responsibility to create a vast positive ‘pandemic democracy’ to mitigate the negative effects of pandemic to a majority of population. Only then it is good for those who are untouched and even benefitted in this pandemic.

               The evolution of positive ‘pandemic democracy’ takes a lot of toil on the warriors to give the fruits of labour and ease their huge pain, loss and suffering. To create a positive ‘pandemic democracy’ in the world, we need to provide positive vibes to the people by healing, curing, preventing, compensating any loss emanating from the covid-19. The positive ‘pandemic democracy’ is the true democracy in action where the majority of people are in coherence with what is happening in society. The opposite should never be the case – a small minority reaping the advantages, overseeing the wreckage in the world and leading a fulfilling life at the expense of many others. One advantaged person’s rise cannot overshadow many others.

               You need to provide a ground for everyone to play and not snatch everything from everyone and play by your own self. If a meaningful life is a game, not many are playing it now as the virus has snatched the game and ground from them. As mentioned, it takes some toil to restore, uplift, and spread uniformity and eliminate negative vibes from demonised influence of virus. From a viewpoint, learning to ‘Live with the virus’ will be a good alternative than waiting for it to end. Let us adapt to live the life of a covid-free world in a covid world. The damage can be minimised and eventually we will see the Sun rising in all of our lives from the darker night. As a warrior, we need to strive to bring the dawn to as many lives as possible. We the humans are all responsible for the problem; the suffering should not be for a few and onus is on everyone to solve it. Till the time virus is nullified and beyond, let us create a positive ‘pandemic democracy’ where everyone – from kids to adults, lead an unperturbed life – students go to school or college and adults work, without a harmful pause. Only then will the negative impact of pandemic be fixed.

               Vaccination is a great tool to enable a life living with the virus. It eliminates mortality to most extent and cripples the power of virus. Few of the warriors who were fully vaccinated have even contracted the virus three to four times and yet emerged without getting harmed. The vaccination in the country stands at 68.65 crore which is 5.6 crore more than last week. An average of 80 lakh doses are being given daily which is a good progress made. The weekly vaccination number is itself the population size of few countries – the 5.6 crore is more than twice the population of Australia. This is equivalent to Australia given two doses or fully vaccinated in a week. This is the mammoth effort being taken up by the states and centre in injecting 200 crore doses.

               Let us talk about vaccine hesitancy, vaccine unawareness, lethargy which are the bottlenecks in achieving the target. In India there is hardly vaccine hesitancy as most of us try to protect ourselves at the given opportunity. There might be vaccine unawareness or lethargy among students to take the shot. I was confounded when few engineering colleges are allowing students to take mass exams without checking if they are vaccinated or not. Not even one student is vaccinated in the group. The students are not entirely hesitant but there are no checks in place to guide them. The colleges are oblivious to pandemic or do not care for students lives. There is a section with this attitude that needs to be directed for following proper guidelines. One can believe that with proper guidance, the hesitancy, awareness and lethargy can be rectified in the country.

              While India is doing so well in vaccination front and eliminating bottlenecks, let us navigate to a known foreign territory – U.S. and Australia. I worked with both of them and look where they stand. U.S. is producing vaccines in huge number and has many global corporations. The country has an eligible population of just over 30 crores with a bad covid record in entire world. Given the circumstances, they should scramble to get the shot and achieve 100% ages ago. But still 37 out of 100 haven’t got a single shot due to a combination of lethargy, awareness and hesitancy. The vaccination rate is crawling at a snail pace while pandemic is ravaging the unvaccinated at an alarming rate. It is logging a 7-day average of a whopping 1.6 lakh cases per day. This is the biggest guffaw of the pandemic.

               The irresponsible people are getting tested for infection but adamantly hesitant to take the jab. No science can comprehend the stupidity as stupidity or acting as such seems to be the highest form of science which very few can understand. But I can at least understand that the unvaccinated citizens contracting virus in lakhs are a threat to the rest of the world. The vaccination should spike to 100% in no time and number of active cases should reach zero. This is the situation rest of the world would like to see the leader to be in.

               Australia is making others guffaw in its own way. With a population of little over 2.5 crores, the country has fully vaccinated just 38% of population and 60% with first dose. There are unending lockdowns in its major cities owing to hundreds of cases. The developed country with small population down under and isolated pockets of living does not contain the pandemic, then who will. I worry for the world. Both the countries are playing filibusters in the midst of pandemic, dragging it for as long as possible and don’t want to end it. Irony is that these very people are my teachers at work and I might imbibe some of their delaying tactics. Unfortunately on the Indian Teachers day, I have to question my teachers to buck up and behave as a teacher to follow.

               The ‘seriousness’ aside, Paralympic Games just concluded and Japan has successfully conducted the Olympics and Paralympics of 2021. It is a great exhibition of life from the underprivileged in these tough times. It is heartening to see the physically challenged exhibiting good sportsmanship and hard work like any other to become champions. Though these games are played since 1960, I came across for the first time. The Paralympians from India bagged 19 medals in total including 5 gold, placing the country in top 25. This is the best feat till date and exceeded the count of all the earlier Paralympics put together. The news of these sports person winning lot of medals on a daily basis over the past 13 days can be seen as a precursor to a brighter future for the country in Olympics and Paralympics.