Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

The mystery of India's plummeting COVID cases

58 replies

Frequentflier · 15/02/2021 13:12

I know people may not care, but the mystery of India's recovery from COVID is being studied by UK and US scientists as well, for tips on how to manage it here. Interesting article on this. They have left out the closure of borders- even to its own citizens- quarantine, and tests at borders, which I think played a part. www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/01/962821038/the-mystery-of-indias-plummeting-covid-19-cases

OP posts:
Literallyfedup · 16/02/2021 07:27

India does a high population density as well.
My sister lives there, so the truth about covid figures: She knows a lot of people who had covid (around 300+), only 4 got tested by Covid PCR , the rest - they got confirmed by other test but Covid test itself was avoided.
Why? If there were beds in the hospital in your area positive people were expected to go to hospital. The bills were in the range of £1500-£7000 depending if you were just given medicine (paracetamol and antibiotics) or oxygen, remedivisir . In India , most people don't have medical insurance, the covid bill was usually same as a major surgery. So people actively avoided the Covid Test. Small clinics , family GP usually confirmed Covid by symptoms, other blood test, lung function test, and sometimes by CT. These test usually cost around £70, and even if expensive then PCR test @£30 was still a way of isolating at home rather than a forced hospital treatment. If interested, read articles about how Indian govt had to intervene and fix cost of medical bills per day. Even so the cost were really high and if multiple people in a family were getting sick then it was simply not affordable. I have even heard stories about bribes given to testing people to make the results negative but it could be rumours.
Treatment at home - Indians are big on taking medication. You can get any medication from pharmacy without prescription 🙄. So with any suspected case in the household everyone was taking a combination of ivermectin (antiparasite) and Doxycycline (antibiotic) . It did have phycological effect and made them feel invincible. Also family doctors were freely giving ciplofloxin, hydrocholroquine, zinc, blood thinners to any suspect case. I think it was reckless but may be it helped save lives.
Overall , studying India is a waste of time because most figures are wrong. No one wants to get tested, they usually have mild covid , they have a chest full of covid medication so no one really cares that much about Covid, and if someone dies they have a funeral same day and no one gets a death certificate signed by a doctor.

cordeliaflynne · 16/02/2021 08:04

What @NiceGerbil said.

TierFourTears · 16/02/2021 08:32

Has the link with TB and the BCG vaccination been disproven? I believe India still vaccinate against TB, and there was a train of thought at one point that BCG provided some protection against covid.

OliveTree75 · 16/02/2021 08:36

Interesting points @Literallyfedup

Delatron · 16/02/2021 10:20

Yes @TierFourTears I remember that. I think it is still the case so could be a reason?

AIMummy · 16/02/2021 10:39

I think it was circulating there way before they realised and they are much ahead of us in the pandemic. Already WHO have suggested it was around in China much earlier than December 2019. A lot of people can't afford medical care and some villages are miles away from hospitals. They are probably nearing herd immunity.

Delatron · 16/02/2021 10:40

That will also make sense. They are so close to China. Maybe what they thought was their first wave was actually their second..

AIMummy · 16/02/2021 10:44

I know a few relatives and acquaintances who passed away in 2019 and very early 2020 with breathing difficulties in India (otherwise unexplained deaths) which is another reason why I believe this.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread