Covid-19 and the madness of crowds

Well, a schoolmate of mine - which would make her mid 30s like me - died of covid.  People are dying now for not being able to get oxygen in time.  I supposed that - lack of oxygen - too makes it a non covid death? 

The point I was making was in the same way just because a person has some comorbidities doesn't mean they are ripe for death.  They could have continued to live with these comorbidities had they not got covid.  A few months back, a senior colleague in his fifties died of covid because he had cardiovascular/diabetes issues that people may often have in that age group. But he was otherwise healthy enough to attend to work. And my org is not for the faint of heart so he was strong alright. 

So I don't quite agree with the notion that deaths are over-reported.  And on a worldwide level, any over-reporting in the Western universe would easily be compensated (more than, I would argue) by under-reporting in the developing world and that includes China. Fudging statistics is much easier here and it serves our politicians well to rather pretend that covid isn't all that serious.

Thanks Steve, I am fine. Even with having to deal with long covid, I feel like getting it the first time round was a blessing in disguise because this wave is way more contagious and is not weakened enough to be non-lethal.  A top 'journalist' (I mean he turned into a right wing grifter like a Hindi Fox News guy if you will) aged 42 died today.  He had a cardiac arrest a week after getting covid.  We are hearing of many cases where there is a sudden and drastic drop in oxygen saturation levels, like all the way to 70 or even 30 in some cases, and the patient (or their relatives) is left to scramble for help. And with our acute oxygen shortfall, aided by a combination of unforgivable complacency, lack of build up of infrastructure (owing to said complacency) and greedy black-marketing of oxygen (yes, you read that right!), many such people are simply dropping dead. 

This is a scary, scary report from the most populous state of India and one of its poorest - Uttar Pradesh:

I don't think it could be 300 million even with our rampant underreporting (lord, I shudder to think what would happen if it really hit that number).  I am guessing you read 3 million as 300 mil.  The real number of active cases is likely to be 5-10 times of 3 million, so 30 mn.  I would not be surprised to see it top 100 mn though the official number, again, will be much lower. Testing is so poor in some of the worst hit pockets that we are seeing insane positivity rates like 40-50%.  

Here in Mumbai, the positivity rate is 12-13%. Which is still high by international standards but much better than the other metropolises. Our state is ruled by the scion of a fascist rabble rouser (who died a few years back); who would have thought that he of all people would at least show the basic common sense to resist political pressure and impose shutdowns to arrest the spread of the virus here, a couple of weeks before other cities like Delhi followed suit. Even he failed to adequately prepare the city/state for the second wave but at least he acted in time which seems like a miracle compared to the rest of the nation.

Whilst I appreciate and am thankful for the outpouring of help and prayers, I also want for tougher words/action from leaders like Biden or Merkel to knock our Prime Idiot several pegs down, embarrass him till he resigns and flees the job he is patently unsuitable for.  This mess is primarily on him though state govts echoed his own complacency as did the people.  But they echoed the example he was setting...by addressing large rallies of mask-less voters in a state that was going to the polls in April and expressing amazement and delight at how many people had come. You can't make this up.  This megalomaniac needs to go.  Nay, he needs to die, preferable of acute oxygen shortage from covid.  Only then will his puppet health minister stop denying the oxygen crisis we are dealing with.

The tragedy is India is the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world and could and should have worked out arrangements to manufacture Pfizer/Moderna vaccines here apart from Astrazeneca and the homegrown Covaxin.  Sputnik is already being made here but only for export so a batch of Sputnik vaccines are arriving from Russia.  As I said, you can't make this up.  The sheer hubris and complacency at the top is unbelievable. 

Forget allowing in Pfizer/Moderna, even had they granted the funding that SII, the local manufacturer of Astrazeneca vaccines, asked for last October, we would be in a better place today.  We don't have vaccines now when we need them most. 

A long way to go on that front, worldwide. 

I feel very lucky to live in the UK where so many of us have been doubly vaccinated.  Cases are rising fast again here but I am pretty confident that the overwhelming of the health services seen during previous waves, will not happen this time round....

Wonder what a booster shot will do......