Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

AshishA · Post by **AshishA** » 01 May 2021 15:09

There is a campaign by sinister powers to hang the cause of covid on India's neck. The same guys were screaming last year about not targeting China as the cause of covid. Currently they are gleefully reporting how 'Indian' variant is the one to be feared. This smear campaign started from USA, and now it has spread over the world. This might result in targeting of Indians abroad like it happened with East Asians.

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 01 May 2021 15:10

Theoretically from today...limited vaccinations have started in many cities although many states are deferring vaccinations due to unavailability of stocks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci has recommended India go in to a total lockdown for few weeks to allow the growth of 2nd wave to ebb.

Sumeet · Post by **Sumeet** » 01 May 2021 15:41

Suraj and others do you guys have any information about whether this article is correct on facts or not:

Scientists say Modi government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge

Apparently, Sri Rajiv Malhotra has also pinned this to his Twitter timeline. Hence it will get a lot of visibility.

Some excerpt:

INSACOG shared its findings with the health ministry’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) before March 10, warning that infections could quickly increase in parts of the country, the director of the northern India research centre told Reuters. The findings were then passed on to the Indian health ministry, this person said. The health ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Around that date, INSACOG began to prepare a draft media statement for the health ministry. A version of that draft, seen by Reuters, set out the forum’s findings: the new Indian variant had two significant mutations to the portion of the virus that attaches to human cells, and it had been traced in 15% to 20% of samples from Maharashtra, India's worst-affected state.

The draft statement said that the mutations, called E484Q and L452R, were of “high concern.” It said “there is data of E484Q mutant viruses escaping highly neutralising antibodies in cultures, and there is data that L452R mutation was responsible for both increased transmissibility and immune escape."
In other words, essentially, this meant that mutated versions of the virus could more easily enter a human cell and counter a person’s immune response to it.

The ministry made the findings public about two weeks later, on March 24, when it issued a statement to the media that did not include the words "high concern." The statement said only that more problematic variants required following measures already underway - increased testing and quarantine. Testing has since nearly doubled to 1.9 million tests a day.

Asked why the government did not respond more forcefully to the findings, for example by restricting large gatherings, Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG, said he was concerned that authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence as they set policy.

"Policy has to be based on evidence and not the other way around," he told Reuters. “I am worried that science was not taken into account to drive policy. But I know where my jurisdiction stops. As scientists we provide the evidence, policymaking is the job of the government.”

The northern India research centre director told Reuters the draft media release was sent to the most senior bureaucrat in the country, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who reports directly to the Prime Minister. Reuters was unable to learn whether Modi or his office were informed of the findings. Gauba did not respond to a request for comment.

The government took no steps to prevent gatherings that might hasten the spread of the new variant, as new infections quadrupled by April 1 from a month earlier.

rrao · Post by **rrao** » 01 May 2021 15:43

https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-o ... 2021-05-01

Truck carrying 2,50,000 doses of covaxin found abandoned in MP....driver and cleaner are missing...

AshishA · Post by **AshishA** » 01 May 2021 17:04

Slot booking for 18+ is now open.

Raja · Post by **Raja** » 01 May 2021 18:02

AshishA wrote:Slot booking for 18+ is now open.

In light of the obvious vaccine shortage, another bad decision. Price for which we will pay in wave #3.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 18:38

@Raja, this may be the time to send your concerns to GJ state about why.

Meanwhile, Ambanis are at it again.

From Zero before pandemic, Reliance Jamnagar now produces over 11% of India’s medical grade liquid oxygen for free supply to States
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/05/01/ ... id-oxygen/

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 18:42

18+ vaccination to begin from 1st May in 10 districts in Gujarat; only those invited through SMS will be vaccinated
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/04/30/ ... accinated/
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/05/01/ ... n-gujarat/
...
3 lakh vaccine doses are to arrive in Gujarat by air today evening. The company that makes vaccine has given assurance that 11 lakh vaccines will be availed to Gujarat in the month of May.
...
Those who have taken online appointment and among them those who get SMS invitation will only get get vaccine. Those who have yet not registered, should do registration fast. None who has not got SMS would visit the vaccine centres. No one who will go directly to vaccine centre without getting SMS. Such people will not be vaccinated.

AMC has started seeing vacant beds in certain areas.

AMC statement on hospital admissions
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/04/30/ ... dmissions/
....
‘All the AMC Covid hospitals and the private hospitals have started displaying vacancy of category wise available beds and accepting walk-in patients coming through personal vehicle, private vehicle, private ambulance as well as 108 patients on their AMC beds and private beds.
There are no ques outside Covid hospitals, and no complaints of denial of admissions have received if the said hospital is having a bed of required category. The bed vacancy status on AHNA and AMC portal is also operational.’
....

nvishal · Post by **nvishal** » 01 May 2021 19:09

Given the way how vaccine shortage reports are coming out of every state, one would assume that both SII and BB have stopped production and india is going through its old vaccine stock.

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 01 May 2021 19:11

darshan wrote:@Raja, this may be the time to send your concerns to GJ state about why.

Meanwhile, Ambanis are at it again.
From Zero before pandemic, Reliance Jamnagar now produces over 11% of India’s medical grade liquid oxygen for free supply to States
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/05/01/ ... id-oxygen/

Irony. Hope this oxygen save life of leaches that destroyed Reliance towers in Punjab.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 19:14

The production is most likely on. It's the security that's going to be the main concern. Adar's words over last few days continue to hint towards that.

Raw Materials Are Not Needed For Manufacturing Of Covishield, But For Covovax, Serum Institute To US Govt
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/raw-mater ... to-us-govt
Adar Poonawalla led Serum Institute of India (SII) has reached out to the United States (US) government to clarify that it requires the raw materials for the advanced at-risk production of a still-to-be approved Covovax vaccine, and not for ramping up the manufacturing of Covishield, reports Livemint.
....

LakshmanPST · Post by **LakshmanPST** » 01 May 2021 19:19

Sumeet wrote:Suraj and others do you guys have any information about whether this article is correct on facts or not:

Scientists say Modi government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge

This is the pib press release of March 17th meetong of PM and CMs...
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1705457

Note this excerpt--->
"He urged to stop this emerging "second peak" of Corona immediately and warned that if we do not stop this growing pandemic now, then a country-wide outbreak can occur.

For stopping this emerging "second peak" of Corona, the Prime Minister stressed the need to take quick and decisive steps. Noting that the seriousness of the local Administration about the use of masks is going down, the PM called for immediate addressing of the governance problems at the regional level. He warned that the confidence which came from our achievements in the battle against Corona should not turn into negligence. He further stressed that the public should not be brought to panic mode and at the same time also get rid of trouble. He stressed the need to strategize by incorporating our past experiences, in our efforts."

So, I wouldn't say Govt. was sleeping over 2nd wave warnings... Clearly Modi himself acknowledged this in mid-March itself and asked states to take all the steps needed...
----
My guess is, both Centre and States were prepared for the 2nd wave... They didn't want create panic as that would have lead to panic in publibe like migrant crisis...
Based on the handling of 1st wave, where 'unlocking' happened during 1st wave peak, they probably thought they could handle it without lockdown and stuff...

But they probably underestimated the rate of spread of this variant... All their models went for a toss when the virus was practically dormant until end March and skyrocketed in 2nd week of April in many states...

Point to note is, even in this March 17th meeting and subsequent meetings, none of the states flagged the requirement of Oxygen... In 2nd week of April, all of a sudden they raised SoS for Oxygen...

Many ppl are blaming Modi for shortage of Oxygen... I personally wouldn't blame him, or the States either for that matter...
Everyone simply underestimated the rate of spread of this variant...
Centre actually did a commendable job in arranging Oxygen on such a short notice...

Sonugn · Post by **Sonugn** » 01 May 2021 19:32

Sumeet wrote:Suraj and others do you guys have any information about whether this article is correct on facts or not:

Scientists say Modi government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge

Apparently, Sri Rajiv Malhotra has also pinned this to his Twitter timeline. Hence it will get a lot of visibility.

Some excerpt:

INSACOG shared its findings with the health ministry’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) before March 10, warning that infections could quickly increase in parts of the country, the director of the northern India research centre told Reuters. The findings were then passed on to the Indian health ministry, this person said. The health ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Around that date, INSACOG began to prepare a draft media statement for the health ministry. A version of that draft, seen by Reuters, set out the forum’s findings: the new Indian variant had two significant mutations to the portion of the virus that attaches to human cells, and it had been traced in 15% to 20% of samples from Maharashtra, India's worst-affected state.

The draft statement said that the mutations, called E484Q and L452R, were of “high concern.” It said “there is data of E484Q mutant viruses escaping highly neutralising antibodies in cultures, and there is data that L452R mutation was responsible for both increased transmissibility and immune escape."
In other words, essentially, this meant that mutated versions of the virus could more easily enter a human cell and counter a person’s immune response to it.

The ministry made the findings public about two weeks later, on March 24, when it issued a statement to the media that did not include the words "high concern." The statement said only that more problematic variants required following measures already underway - increased testing and quarantine. Testing has since nearly doubled to 1.9 million tests a day.

Asked why the government did not respond more forcefully to the findings, for example by restricting large gatherings, Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG, said he was concerned that authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence as they set policy.

"Policy has to be based on evidence and not the other way around," he told Reuters. “I am worried that science was not taken into account to drive policy. But I know where my jurisdiction stops. As scientists we provide the evidence, policymaking is the job of the government.”

The northern India research centre director told Reuters the draft media release was sent to the most senior bureaucrat in the country, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who reports directly to the Prime Minister. Reuters was unable to learn whether Modi or his office were informed of the findings. Gauba did not respond to a request for comment.

The government took no steps to prevent gatherings that might hasten the spread of the new variant, as new infections quadrupled by April 1 from a month earlier.

There is a clarification:-

IIT Professor responds after Economic Times misquoted him to insinuate that the Indian government ignored warning signs of Covid 2nd wave

On Friday (April 30), an IIT-Hyderabad Professor named M Vidyasagar slammed the Economic Times (ET) for quoting him out of context and insinuating that the Centre ‘deliberately’ ignored the warning signs of the 2nd wave of Coronavirus outbreak in India.

Within a few hours, Professor M Vidyasagar took to Twitter to debunk the allegation that the Centre was in a state of denial. While attaching the image of the report, he tweeted, “Since I am quoted in this article, I would like to clarify a few things. First, I never said anyone was “in denial.” It is perhaps a paraphrase but sounds like an accusation, which was never made by me. The rest of my comments (quoted accurately) make that clear.”

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 19:38

What did these scientists have to say about various states like MH and Delhi that continued to brew the virus? Did they have any warnings about that? What were their suggestions and tracked presentations?

Things would have started to be arranged in December 2020 and suggestions should have come at the least around then. Let's say we give them till February 2021. Which scientist made a prediction? I think that some astrologers had done and they turned out correct about bad time going on for many. Scientist's report requiring Reliance to become the producer of oxygen?

In GJ, starting February as beds were filling up, people were being advised to be on caution. However, most confirmed cases were mild version not requiring hospitalizations. If you had money to spare, you got yourself a bed to be observed. There was lot of spillage that started from MH and other states into GJ. This led to GJ closing off entry points but very late. This is one critical mistake that GJ did do and that was to allow open entries from the badly managed states.

To add to confusion, there was also correlation with vaccination drives going and people were debating whether it's a wave or the protocol deficiency at vaccinating centers. More or less by mid March, states like GJ had started to treat this as a wave. At most two weeks were to be bought. And, only people themselves would have been able to stop it by changing their ways at the moment notice.

chinese virus affected went from mild cases to severe cases within three weeks. If people were predicting such things, then I can assure you that there were plenty of pharma people who would have made boat load of money. Same for oxygen suppliers.

Sonugn · Post by **Sonugn** » 01 May 2021 19:48

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla hints at starting vaccine production outside India, says he temporarily moved to UK due to threats from the powerful

Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine known as Covishield in India, has hinted that he is planning to start vaccine production in other countries as it struggles to meet supply commitments. Poonawalla made the revelation in an interview with The Times.

When asked if Poonawalla is looking at Britain as one of the destinations for augmenting his vaccine production, he responded: “There’s going to be an announcement in the next few days.”

However, it is widely believed that Britain could be one of the countries where Serum Institute of India could start its vaccine production outside India. Lord Udny-Lister, who was until recently one of the top aides of British PM Boris Johnson, visited the Serum Institute of India in March. Johnson was also scheduled to visit the institute on his cancelled trip to India this week.

Poonawalla last week said that he would be able to increase the monthly vaccine production capacity to 100 million doses by July this year, which is a month late than his earlier timeline of May-end. This could throw a curveball into India’s vaccination drive as it ushers in the phase 4 inoculation where people above 18 years of age can get vaccinated.

He hoped to increase the Serum Institute’s production capacity from 2.5 billion to 3 billion doses a year within six months, the Times reported.
Poonawalla reveals threats he received from powerful people who demanded him urgent supplies of Covishield

Poonawalla flew to London to join his wife and two children hours before Britain banned travellers from India eight days ago. Besides business, the reason that prompted Poonawalla to leave India was the incessant and menacing threats he had to endure from those who pressurise and intimidate him to provide them with vaccines.

He says he has been receiving calls from the most powerful men in India, chief ministers of Indian states, heads of business conglomerates and other influential people who are demanding him of providing them with vaccines even as his organisation is working round the clock to fulfil the vaccine demand.

“Threats is an understatement. The level of expectations and aggression is really unprecedented. It’s overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can’t understand why anyone else should get it before them,” Poonawalla reportedly said to The Times.

Poonawalla explained the calls he receives normally start with exchanging pleasantries before it drifts in a “very different direction”. “They are saying if you don’t give us the vaccine, it’s not going to be good…It’s not the foul language, it’s the tone. It’s the implication of what they might do if I don’t comply. It’s taking control,” he said.

He further added, “I’m staying here (Britain) extended times because I don’t want to go back to that situation. Everything falls on my shoulders but I can’t do it alone…I don’t want to be in a situation where you are trying to do your job, and just because you can’t supply the needs of X, Y and Z you really don’t want to guess what they are going to do.”

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 19:55

Everyone does know, but to remind again, SII is in MH.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 20:01

COVID-19: CSIR To Carry Out Genome Sequencing Of Samples From Maharashtra On A Regular Basis
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/covid-19- ... ular-basis
In a major step in the ongoing Covid-19 second wave, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) will carry out genome sequencing of samples from Maharashtra on a regular basis, an officials said on Friday (30 April).

chanakyaa · Post by **chanakyaa** » 01 May 2021 20:08

Those who believe that the recent surge/wave of cases in India is the worst in the world and start blaming everyone under the sun, need to get some perspective.

Taking the most recent example of 400K new cases in India, indicates that for every 100,000 people 30 people are infected on a daily basis, assuming that we are near peak (because rate of growth, and growth of “rate of growth” is slowing).

So, how does new case growth in India compare to other densely populated countries?

France: 128 cases (peak Nov 2020)
Argentina: 83 cases (peak April 24, 2020), cases are now declining
Germany: 43 cases (peak Dec 2020), another mini-wave is ongoing
Brazil: 41 cases (peak March 27, 2020)
South Africa: 32 cases (peak January 10, 2020)
Malaysia: 15 cases (peak Feb 4, 2020) — Country now going through another wave

Is population density a good predictor of waves? Based on population density (i.e. least population density and higher cases), countries with more than 2 waves and cases per 100K between 15 to 128 are (worst to least worst) Argentina, Brazil, US, South Africa, Malaysia, and France.

Now, let us look at waves by country. Here I’m using well defined peak to trough as a simple definition of wave (no, not your physics wave). Below is a list of how many waves countries have gone through. For example, “1.5” means that the country went thru one wave and in the middle of another wave as in case of India.

India: 1.5
France: 3.0 (April 2020, Nov 2020, April 2021)
Argentina: 2.5 (Oct 2020, Jan 2021, April 2021)
Germany: 3.0 (April 2020, Dec 2020, April 2021)
Brazil: 2.0 (July 2020, March 2021) — just look at Brazil graphs, worst graph in the world.
South Africa: 2.0 (July 2020, Jan 2021)
Malaysia: 2.5 (Mar 2020, Feb 2021, and 3rd wave is ongoing)
Japan: 3.5 (Apr 2020, Aug 2020, Jan 2021, 4th wave is on going), here each wave is bigger than the previous

Amazing no one talks about it because absolute numbers are small. But, somehow mudi must rejien

Yes, the absolute numbers in India are higher because we are the 2nd most populous country in the world. But, the other countries are much worse than India. Do you want to be in Argentina or Brazil? Probably not. Yes, healthcare, facilities, oxygen are all legitimate challenges but the bigger picture hopefully provides some context.

Continued precaution, social distancing, and keeping up the pace aggressively on vaccination is the best way to beat this. If the other countries are any example, there will be 3rd, and the 4th wave. This is not over yet.

DheerajG · Post by **DheerajG** » 01 May 2021 20:32

darshan wrote:Everyone does know, but to remind again, SII is in MH.

Right but he could have moved to GJ instead of UK where a friendly govt is firmly in power. He already got Y category protection from MHA. Is it due to lack of trust?

Also, why is he setting up production line outside India when he can do so within India itself?

AshishA · Post by **AshishA** » 01 May 2021 20:39

What will the consequences of Adar Poonawalla shifting to UK?

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 01 May 2021 20:57

It is bizzaire. Almost a statement that the state is powerless to protect the key stakeholders. Someone is trying to send a message.

First Ambani and now this.

Kakkaji · Post by **Kakkaji** » 01 May 2021 21:05

First Batch of Sputnik V arrives in India

Earlier today, a flight carrying the first lot of Russian vaccines landed in Hyderabad, Telangana.

"Happy to share that the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was delivered in Hyderabad today! As Russia and India continue dedicated joint efforts to combat the #COVID19, this move is especially important to support the Indian Government's endeavours to mitigate the deadly second wave and save lives," said Ambassador Kudashev

The Russian envoy also said that the efficacy of the Sputnik V in among the highest in the world, and this vaccine will also be effective against new strains of COVID-19,

Diplomatic sources had told ANI that India will get a substantive number of vaccines in the first tranche and the supply will continue in instalments. India is expecting 5 million vials of Sputnik vaccines by the next month.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 21:31

DheerajG wrote: Right but he could have moved to GJ instead of UK where a friendly govt is firmly in power. He already got Y category protection from MHA. Is it due to lack of trust?

Also, why is he setting up production line outside India when he can do so within India itself?

I wasn't exactly happy when in new budgets GJ did not try to bring in vaccine makers.

My primary reasoning would have been better management of workers and lesser probability of insider threats. GJ also had a lid on the virus cases.

Primus · Post by **Primus** » 01 May 2021 21:47

There is so much misery and sad news, but there is a ray of hope as well.

A very close friend who lives here, lost her mother to COVID last night. As they were taking her from home to hospital, she lost the battle - she was on oxygen at home but levels were dropping fast. She was DOA at one of the major hospitals in Delhi.

Despite all the horrors we have heard of in endless news cycles, the ER doctor was most respectful and kind as we talked to him from here. He said ' you have no idea how bad it is', and yet he was patient and gave us all the help and sympathy he could, certifying her and agreeing to keep her in the morgue until the cremation today. The nurse at home has been with her for the past 3 days, working tirelessly to keep her alive and to keep us informed. The cremation has just concluded, they even allowed a zoom telecast for the family here to be able to pay their respects.

Despite all the doom and gloom, there are people on the front lines who are giving it everything they can, going beyond the call of duty. No matter how it all ends, my heart swells with pride at my brothers-in-arms who are fighting a fierce battle against this Chinese scourge.

My koti-koti pranaams to these warriors. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to them, they are our soldiers in a different kind of war, on a different kind of battlefield. As long as they are there, we are here. A small ray of sunshine in this dark landscape.

nam · Post by **nam** » 01 May 2021 22:07

Sorry for the loss to the family.

Was she vaccinated?

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 01 May 2021 22:14

https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/when ... al-partner
When Will SaNOtize's Nasal Spray Treatment For Covid-19 Be Available In India? CEO Says Company In Search Of Local Partner

Plans For India

In an interview with Money9, Chris Miller, co-founder and Chief Science Officer at SaNOtize said that the firm is in talks with several potential partners in India and looking for a “reputed Indian pharmaceutical company” that can help the Canadian firm with expansion.

“It should be a reputed company with distribution channels for equitable access to all, especially those that do not have access to vaccines,” he added.

The company’s CEO and co-founder of Dr Gilly Regev also confirmed that SaNOtize is currently working to find the right partner in India.

“We are hoping that it [NONS] will be approved as a medical device in India to prevent Covid-19,” she said.

She believes that the nasal spray could have saved millions of lives if it was marketed in 2020.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 01 May 2021 22:50

Daily number of fresh cases down, active cases almost steady, recovery rate, vaccine doses up in Gujarat
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/05/01/ ... urther-up/
....
The number of recoveries has further improved. Yesterday 10,180 covid patients had recovered, while today 10,582 patients have recovered.

The State witnessed vaccination of total 2.17 lakh people in a day including 55,235 first doses in 18-44 age group.
....

sreerudra · Post by **sreerudra** » 01 May 2021 23:07

darshan wrote:
DheerajG wrote: Right but he could have moved to GJ instead of UK where a friendly govt is firmly in power. He already got Y category protection from MHA. Is it due to lack of trust?

Also, why is he setting up production line outside India when he can do so within India itself?
I wasn't exactly happy when in new budgets GJ did not try to bring in vaccine makers.

My primary reasoning would have been better management of workers and lesser probability of insider threats. GJ also had a lid on the virus cases.

Can Indian Govt take control over the firm so he wouldn't monkey around sabotaging the supply lines?

VKumar · Post by **VKumar** » 01 May 2021 23:35

I believe that last year the Central government had allocated funds to states for building oxygen plants. Assam set up 8. Mah set up one and Delhi did not set up any.

Also there has been lack of professionalism in hospital management in not setting up oxygen plants.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 02 May 2021 00:29

sreerudra wrote: Can Indian Govt take control over the firm so he wouldn't monkey around sabotaging the supply lines?

Sorry, who's He? If you're referring to Adar then he is not doing anything to supply lines. And the Indian govt is the last thing you want to take over anything. That would be like suicidal.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 02 May 2021 00:52

Gujarat govt to bear IGST on items imported for Covid treatment
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/05/01/ ... treatment/
....
As per this decision, if any voluntary organization, person or corporate company import medical oxygen, oxygen cylinder, oxygen plant, oxygen filling system, oxygen storage tank, oxygen generator, cryogenic road transport tank etc or their parts, ventilators, vaccine, Remdesivir injections or material used in making of it and give it for free of cost to the State government, State of civic body run hospitals or State approved hospitals/organizations then IGST will be paid by the State government on such items.

Kakkaji · Post by **Kakkaji** » 02 May 2021 07:15

More than 84 thousand beneficiaries of age group 18-44 Vaccinated today

Good start on first day of Phase 3, given all the news about shortage of vaccines.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 02 May 2021 09:16

Sonugn wrote:There is a clarification:-

IIT Professor responds after Economic Times misquoted him to insinuate that the Indian government ignored warning signs of Covid 2nd wave

On Friday (April 30), an IIT-Hyderabad Professor named M Vidyasagar slammed the Economic Times (ET) for quoting him out of context and insinuating that the Centre ‘deliberately’ ignored the warning signs of the 2nd wave of Coronavirus outbreak in India.

Within a few hours, Professor M Vidyasagar took to Twitter to debunk the allegation that the Centre was in a state of denial. While attaching the image of the report, he tweeted, “Since I am quoted in this article, I would like to clarify a few things. First, I never said anyone was “in denial.” It is perhaps a paraphrase but sounds like an accusation, which was never made by me. The rest of my comments (quoted accurately) make that clear.”

Thanks. I have been tracking Prof Vidyasagar (@stellensatz) and Prof Agrawal (@agrawalmanindra) on Twitter and saw the former set the record straight there:
https://twitter.com/stellensatz/status/ ... 68010?s=21

a_bharat · Post by **a_bharat** » 02 May 2021 10:17

I have been thinking about the current situation and jotted down a few points for improving the response to future Covid waves or other pandemics. There has to be a system for handling such abnormal situations and not having a system leads to chaos, gloom and misery as we currently witness.

Issues:
• Acute shortage of hospital beds
• Lack of a structure for allocating and availing hospital beds
• Sick people having to run from pillar to post and losing the battle and spreading the virus
• Lack of Oxygen supply
• Overworked doctors, nurses

Approach:
• Perfect is the enemy of good: "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes."
• Emphasis should be on providing timely medical assistance to maximum number of people, instead of expecting every patient be seen by a doctor. Standardize the treatments such that a large number of people can recover at home. It is OK to err in a few cases than leaving a large number of people without any care due to acute shortage of medical facilities and doctors. Minimize the workload on doctors by automating their role to the extent possible.
• An Expert System driven automated approach to prescribe medicines and treatment to most of the patients. Recruit MBBS students to operate these systems and filter for the cases that need to be hospitalized and treated by senior health care professionals.
• Assume all people with symptoms to have Covid and start the standard treatment without making the sick people go for multiple tests and wait for RTPCR result. Only complicated cases with comorbidities be required to take specific tests.
• Divide the work into a few specific narrow areas such that people with a short training (say, a couple of weeks) should be able to do well.
• Recruit people (12th pass would do) to collect health parameters such as BP, temperature, SpO2, medical history etc., from patients at their homes. They would enter the data into the Expert System and give the prescription to the patients. If the system recommends hospitalization, the patient’s data would be automatically submitted to the Hospital Bed Allocation System which would then allocate a bed in the nearest available hospital.
• Take away the hospital bed allocation function from the hospitals. All allocations be done by the Hospital Bed Allocation System. All entries and exits would be recorded by this system. No strings can be pulled to get VIP treatment and jump the queue.
• Only patients with deteriorating health parameters or with medical complications would be hospitalized. This decision would be purely based on data, demand/supply and there should be very little scope for discretion.
• Make it mandatory for all hospitals (> 10 beds) to have on-site Oxygen generation plants. They should not rely on external suppliers for any of their Oxygen consumption.
• For those who cannot isolate at home, the Railways initiative is the way to go

Added Later:
• Don't prescribe hard to get medicines/treatments, particularly ones with questionable utility.

A Nandy · Post by **A Nandy** » 02 May 2021 10:53

Also a doctor seeing each patient one at a time will not scale. Somehow the doc has to address multiple patients together, maybe by issuing sufficiently general instructions to a group of 5 patients together first and then taking any specific questions that deviate from the general symptoms. But still being available physically or online(for home treatment) so that unforeseen situations can be dealt with immediately. Sort of a town hall approach with answers for common queries quickly helping many.

This is of course only if automated instructions are found to be insufficient and a doc is reqd after proper triaging.

DrRatnadip · Post by **DrRatnadip** » 02 May 2021 11:27

I have no words to thank govt for allotting us grand total of 3 remdesivir vials.. I just need to travel 150 km to get them .. Yesterday we went 30 km to get 6 vials.. Now they might send us to other end of state to get one vial.. Physical copy of letterhead with stamps is mandatory so I must commit a special person to get those injections from distributers which are randomly allocated to most inconvinient and faraway place possible..It is already difficult to get staff and such harrassment is certainly not going to lift morale of already overburdened healthcare system..

Raja · Post by **Raja** » 02 May 2021 11:42

Looking at 7 day rolling average of vaccination doses, it again becomes very clear that there is a massive vaccination shortage on hand. Clearly the health minister was lying out of his teeth and playing politics when accusing the states of lying about shortage.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 02 May 2021 12:28

Regarding Remdesivir, is this where compulsory licensing would help improve supply?

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 02 May 2021 12:29

GoI should have invested in SII for additional production lines in Feb itself after the fire incident in Jan. Prolly we would have those lines operational by now. SII was saying before fire that additional capacity would be available by March/early April but now has revised its time lines to July. So we will be in a phase of 3M vaccinations till June end to July I guess.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 02 May 2021 12:30

Raja wrote:Looking at 7 day rolling average of vaccination doses, it again becomes very clear that there is a massive vaccination shortage on hand. Clearly the health minister was lying out of his teeth and playing politics when accusing the states of lying about shortage.

We don't know how many vaccines are going and where they are going. So even if a 100 million doses are available in the plant monthly. And 50% are to be administered by the state's you will always have slowed down vaccination rates.

Things with only improve once maybe 30% of the population has been vaccinated. That will require 600 million + doses. That is 6 months worth of production at current rates.