India

[Baileysforchristmas]

How on earth are India going to get there numbers down? If they impose to harsher lockdown people will starve to death. I think virus was quietly spreading in February when everyone was saying how well India was doing.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/delhi-warns-hospitals-running-out-of-oxygen-amid-indias-devastating-covid-wave

This is a Twitter thread on it: mobile.twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1385263624940408832.

The other Indian vaccine is also good against this variant: wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/current-affairs/indigenously-developed-covaxin-neutralises-double-mutant-strain-icmr-121042100467_1.html.

@everythingthelighttouches, sorry, I don't have a link to the actual study - I've just seen it in a few Indian news reports, e.g.

m.timesofindia.com/india/covishield-may-protect-against-double-mutant-ccmb-report/amp_articleshow/82206892.cms

Ah, I see that @MRex has linked to a Twitter post also.

Preliminary results only, but fingers crossed!

It is hard for most people to really appreciate how poor a lot of people are in India. To put it into context, I had a colleague who was paid $300 per month (approximately £215). From this salary, she had bought a 5 bedroom house back home in India and had a housemaid, cook and gardener. Goodness knows how much she was paying them.

As for a solution, the government needs to make masks mandatorily and ban outside gatherings.

@Ylvamoon

It's sad, but India is a 3rd world country. Most people are very poor without adequate housing yet alone access to medical care. The cases we hear about are probably the tip of the iceberg. Nobody seems to be interested in the fact that TB is rife as well as typhoid - these are illnesses that have been almost eradicated in western society.

Yep, also poor hygiene, crowded living etc. Same as the way it’s ripping through the poorer parts of Brazil.

As for the numbers of younger people in hospital is this because the older and frailer ones are dying/too sick for hospital?

Sad but then it was dire here too in January, are their numbers per capita any worse than ours were?

I was close to tears the other day, being told the mark the doctors puts on people who have Covid (like a temporary tattoo) so that they can’t go to work / have to isolate. Poorer family’s are burning them off with silver nitrate, they need better support from the government. These people are going to starve to death.

It's sad, but India is a 3rd world country.
Most people are very poor without adequate housing yet alone access to medical care.

No one could deny that, but a huge part of the blame is on the government for being too relaxed, letting festivities fo ahead and rallies also allowed to proceed.

I don't pretend to understand Indian politics but the utter madness of allowing this to happen leaves me speechless.

@RedcurrantPuff we’ll never know if the numbers are worse than the UK as not everyone is being tested, not all births and deaths are registered You can’t even look at data of access deaths over 5 years as there isn’t any real data.

Here’s an interesting comment from our international correspondent Michael Safi:

michael safi
(@safimichael)
India's ruling party insisted on holding huge election rallies throughout this health crisis, but says if they win, they'll vaccinate people for free t.co/nXylZFt83L

Vaccinations in India have always been free until this vile government came into power. We defeated polio and smallpox with free vaccines. It's now a mishmash of free and paid for different ages and in different states.

One thing that the US, UK and other richer countries need to do is stop blocking patent waivers for vaccines. Nobody is safe until everybody is safe. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/18/patent-waiver-covid-vaccines-uk-variants

The US is also hoarding vaccines it will not use. www.msnbc.com/opinion/u-s-can-t-keep-hoarding-covid-19-vaccines-world-n1263581

@Frequentflier I agree the vaccines being made in India should be going to the Indian population

I so feel for the people in India and feel like I want to do something. We've had major unexpected house repairs taking every penny. What I do have though is a massive pile waiting to go to charity shops, and no doubt I could easily find more. Wondering whether to do a car boot sale, on a bad day it might only raise £30 but a lot of £30s add up.

[quote Baileysforchristmas]@Frequentflier I agree the vaccines being made in India should be going to the Indian population[/quote]
Really? isn't there several threads on here castigating the EU for attempting the same thing?

As bad as their reported infection rate is, its half that of France - per capita

But of course, any country with hi rates should be keeping vaccines for themselves, regardless of commercial contracts and the UK should be sending vaccines to these countries instead of vaccinating us lot so we can go on holidays......

The unmoderated pictures and videos coming out of India are off the scale. They need to keep all their vaccines for themselves and why Johnson thought only last week it was a good idea to visit says it all. This is a humanitarian catastrophe.

mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/CovidIndia?src=hashtag_click

@jasjas1973 EU are a different case as you well know, you can’t compare. This is about India let’s not derail it and keep to the subject.

@Baileysforchristmas it’s a shame they can’t do the same for the rest of the country post-1 May.....

indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-you-pay-siis-covishield-vaccine-may-1-7283094/lite/

This is absolutely terrible. I could weep for them.

Huge population living on top of each other, no access to basic healthcare, poverty, lack of sanitation, ignorant government meaning lack of awareness raised to the public = recipe for disaster

Ah my link didn’t work www.google.co.uk/amp/s/indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-you-pay-siis-covishield-vaccine-may-1-7283094/lite/

@lurker101 very interesting but sad it’s being sold, poor people won’t stand a chance of being vaccinated 😞

Yes it’s awful. The previous system seemed to be working well - c. £2.50 if you want it at a private hospital or free at a Govt. hospital. The new system will cause chaos and prolong the crisis by pricing people out... unless they’re in a state where votes need to be won.

[quote Baileysforchristmas]@jasjas1973 EU are a different case as you well know, you can’t compare. This is about India let’s not derail it and keep to the subject.[/quote]
I'm agreeing with you, glad you see the sense in countries like India with very high infection rates, keeping vaccines so they can protect their vulnerable and help prevent healthcare systems from being over run.

However, India's problems are far beyond a lack of vaccine, they start with a populist leader, just like Brazil or the USA last year.

Very concerned to see the Indian variant is being found here. One to watch that is for sure.

Mostly imported cases so far, @Thewiseoneincognito. I don't think there is much, if any, evidence yet of community transmission. It may well happen, though. Let's hope that the vaccines will be effective against it.

It looks like the problems in Delhi are predominantly being caused by the Kent variant, while the Indian variant is more prevalent in Maharashtra.

@paralysedbyinertia

Mostly imported cases so far, *@Thewiseoneincognito*. I don't think there is much, if any, evidence yet of community transmission. It may well happen, though. Let's hope that the vaccines will be effective against it.

It looks like the problems in Delhi are predominantly being caused by the Kent variant, while the Indian variant is more prevalent in Maharashtra.

Actually, my previous post appears to be wrong. We do now have some community transmission after all.