‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell
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How did a country that had endured a comparatively mild pandemic for 12 months suddenly turn into a raging inferno? There are two theories. One, a la Chile, is that India believed it had COVID licked after many months of few infections so it let down its guard and relaxed restrictions. Movie theaters opened at full capacity on February 1. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, began holding mass rallies again and didn’t bother wearing a mask. (Which sounds familiar.) Last month the health minister arrogantly declared that the country was in the “endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic.” An epidemiologist writes today that “The mass political, religious and sporting events, which are extensively covered by the Indian media, sent mixed messages about the seriousness of the pandemic” and that “there is an unfounded sense among a large number of Indians that exposure to pollution and microbes had endowed them with superior immunity.”
The other factor in India’s outbreak is that they have a variant of their very own now. A “double-mutant,” in fact, so called because it has not one but two key mutations on the spike protein:
Scientists aren’t sure yet whether it’s meaningfully more contagious than the common coronavirus but the strain’s growing prevalence is a clue that it is. Doctors are understandably worried that the variant could theoretically break through the immunity provided by vaccines:
Every infected person is a laboratory for the virus to mutate into something more dangerous and India has more “laboratories” than any country on Earth except China. The virus is running millions of “experiments” there right now — each day. The fact that until recently the country had suffered only mild spikes in cases relative to western countries also should logically mean that there’s little natural immunity in the population to help slow down the current spread. How much worse it could get is anyone’s guess,
@george-k said in ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell:
How did a country that had endured a comparatively mild pandemic for 12 months suddenly turn into a raging inferno? There are two theories. One, a la Chile, is that India believed it had COVID licked after many months of few infections so it let down its guard and relaxed restrictions. Movie theaters opened at full capacity on February 1. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, began holding mass rallies again and didn’t bother wearing a mask. (Which sounds familiar.) Last month the health minister arrogantly declared that the country was in the “endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic.” An epidemiologist writes today that “The mass political, religious and sporting events, which are extensively covered by the Indian media, sent mixed messages about the seriousness of the pandemic” and that “there is an unfounded sense among a large number of Indians that exposure to pollution and microbes had endowed them with superior immunity.”
The other factor in India’s outbreak is that they have a variant of their very own now. A “double-mutant,” in fact, so called because it has not one but two key mutations on the spike protein:
Scientists aren’t sure yet whether it’s meaningfully more contagious than the common coronavirus but the strain’s growing prevalence is a clue that it is. Doctors are understandably worried that the variant could theoretically break through the immunity provided by vaccines:
Every infected person is a laboratory for the virus to mutate into something more dangerous and India has more “laboratories” than any country on Earth except China. The virus is running millions of “experiments” there right now — each day. The fact that until recently the country had suffered only mild spikes in cases relative to western countries also should logically mean that there’s little natural immunity in the population to help slow down the current spread. How much worse it could get is anyone’s guess,
@george-k said in ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell:
How did a country that had endured a comparatively mild pandemic for 12 months suddenly turn into a raging inferno? There are two theories. One, a la Chile, is that India believed it had COVID licked after many months of few infections so it let down its guard and relaxed restrictions. Movie theaters opened at full capacity on February 1. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, began holding mass rallies again and didn’t bother wearing a mask. (Which sounds familiar.) Last month the health minister arrogantly declared that the country was in the “endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic.” An epidemiologist writes today that “The mass political, religious and sporting events, which are extensively covered by the Indian media, sent mixed messages about the seriousness of the pandemic” and that “there is an unfounded sense among a large number of Indians that exposure to pollution and microbes had endowed them with superior immunity.”
The other factor in India’s outbreak is that they have a variant of their very own now. A “double-mutant,” in fact, so called because it has not one but two key mutations on the spike protein:
Scientists aren’t sure yet whether it’s meaningfully more contagious than the common coronavirus but the strain’s growing prevalence is a clue that it is. Doctors are understandably worried that the variant could theoretically break through the immunity provided by vaccines:
Every infected person is a laboratory for the virus to mutate into something more dangerous and India has more “laboratories” than any country on Earth except China. The virus is running millions of “experiments” there right now — each day. The fact that until recently the country had suffered only mild spikes in cases relative to western countries also should logically mean that there’s little natural immunity in the population to help slow down the current spread. How much worse it could get is anyone’s guess,
Yikes.
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https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/india
Argentina, Turkey and Sweden have more per capita. In fact, the US is about the same as India.
I doubt the trajectory is as scary as India's.
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https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/india
Argentina, Turkey and Sweden have more per capita. In fact, the US is about the same as India.
I doubt the trajectory is as scary as India's.
@george-k said in ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell:
Argentina, Turkey and Sweden have more per capita. In fact, the US is about the same as India.
I doubt the trajectory is as scary as India's.I also doubt that the testing regimes are comparable.
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Mass cremations:
Link to video -
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-provide-vaccine-components-medical-supplies-india-2021-04-25/
The United States will immediately send raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in coronavirus infections, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday.
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I didn’t realize that the funeral pyres were how they cremated their dead normally. They are just having to do so many more of them, they’re running out of space to do it.
@jodi said in ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell:
I didn’t realize that the funeral pyres were they cremated their dead normally. They are just having to do so many more of them, they’re running out of space to do it.
Takes a lot of wood, too.
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@jodi said in ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell:
I didn’t realize that the funeral pyres were they cremated their dead normally. They are just having to do so many more of them, they’re running out of space to do it.
Takes a lot of wood, too.
