Do you think the pictures from India are racist?

[SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun]

The pictures published are so shocking and of course reflect reality but the press would never show bodies of British people in coffins, in the crematoriums, in ambulances or in their graves. There are pictures today of corpses with no wrapping being transported. They wouldn’t show a British person after death with no covering. Maybe all the pictures of funeral pyres reflect Indian culture and the fact that this is shown is in fact somehow the opposite of racism like an acceptance of a different culture without applying our taboos?

Although actually there was a bbc report from a hospital mortuary early this year with wrapped bodies so maybe it isn’t racism but it doesn’t sit right. It feels like maybe they think we can see this because the people are ‘other’.

creates a fee-good factor for the public

Seriously? Who feels good looking at people suffering?

OP here. Still reading - thanks for all the comments. It’s interesting that some people think the coverage obviously racist and some that it obviously isn’t. Both dehumanising and humanising. Also that the footage is made by people in India looking for support so is it racist of our media to show it unedited against our cultural norms or would it be racist to edit it?

is it racist of our media to show it unedited against our cultural norms or would it be racist to edit it?
There is a third possibility, that neither option is racist, just a matter of differing levels of cultural sensitivity (in both directions) practiced by different media outlets.

Yes - perhaps we look for racism where it doesn’t exist.

Yes - perhaps we look for racism where it doesn’t exist.

Totally agree.

The same people who search for any 'ism' to look superior to the rest of us. Get a grip.

@Mercybooth. Interesting points. From a slightly different standpoint it’s relevant to my own situation. Both my husband and myself are CEV with serious underlying conditions and so we took shielding very seriously. Nobody came over the doorstep, we didn’t go out except for essentials like GP visits - all shopping done by internet and left in porch before washing. I tried to think of everything and for nearly a year we were fine. Then my husband had to go into hospital unexpectedly after a routine clinic appointment. On admission a lateral flow test proved positive (a false positive we now know). He was place on a ward with other patients infected with Covid and was there for five days before discharge. Two PCR tests done by the hospital during this time were negative but it was too late by then as they had already exposed him to the virus. He came home after five days and a week later we both started to show symptoms, and we both went on to be really ill with it. This does prove the point that you can do your level best, but try as you might, you can’t control everything.

Drpet49. To say that it creates a feel good factor is incredibly insulting to the British public and almost worse than ascribing racism to the situation. I’ll probably be handed my ass for this, but I think we’ve all had enough of accusations of racism being levelled at every opportunity, closing down proper, balanced debate and threatening freedom of speech. I’m not denying that the UK governments’ handling of the pandemic hasn’t been ideal but given the urgency and the lack of experience of anything on this scale what does anyone expect ? We’re all human and at one point there was a new aspect of the virus emerging daily - how were they supposed to respond without a crystal ball ? The situation in India is tragic and disturbing but I don’t think there’s anything remotely like a feel good factor for anyone watching those images. I think it’s more likely to make anyone with half a brain go down on their knees and thank God that whatever criticism you care to level at Boris and Co, we’re not in the same situation. That’s not a feel good factor in any sense, it’s a normal, human empathetic reaction and doesn’t detract from the sorrow we feel at watching this tragedy unfold - as evidenced by some, if not most of the posts here.

@pam290358 i was reading somewhere that 40"000 people had been infected in hospital but if they then brought the infection home to family members the cases caused by hospital infection are far higher.

@Mercybooth. I did some research during our recovery to see if I could find any studies looking at hospital infections and I saw similar figures. Exactly the same thing happened to our neighbour - her husband was elderly and had to go into our local hospital for minor surgery. LFT gave a positive result, but he was put on a Covid ward before PCR test result was back. That turned out to be negative too, but again too late because the hospital had exposed him - he was discharged 2 days later, fell ill the following week and was admitted back into hospital where he died. His wife was admitted to ITU a few days later with Covid and was really ill - only just on the mend now.

When we were recovering I contacted the PALS team at the hospital and it was only then I found out that NHS protocol on a positive LFT on admission was to place the patient in isolation until a positive PCR test confirmed it. This didn’t happen and they knew he was extremely vulnerable. They did not one, but two follow up PCR tests and both were negative - suggestive of a bit of panic - but at no point did they inform my husband that the PCR was negative. We only found out because he had the NHS app and the results were sent to his phone. We both could have died and my poor neighbour’s life is in ruins.

My hubby went to the hospital for a clinic follow up a few weeks later and one of the nurses from the ward came to see how he was. He thought at the time that it was a nice gesture but I’m not so sure - I think it more likely they were checking him out because they knew they had got it wrong. We decided not to take any action - no point in piling on the misery in an already overstretched system, but still infuriating that they can flout protocols like this. His discharge notes made no mention of the fact that his PCR tests were negative, only that he had not displayed any symptoms of Covid despite testing positive on LFT.

Remember the footage of people dying on hospital floors in Italy, etc? It was like disaster porn but when our first wave hit, it all went suddenly quiet

I assumed at the time that there was active censorship to avoid creating panic. There was certainly plenty of stuff going on in hospitals last spring, it just wasn’t being filmed. Not people dying on the floor, but people sharing ventilators, double-bed spacing, running out of CVVH fluid, etc (to be clear, I am not saying censoring all that was wrong in any way).

@pam290358 Infuriating. Especially when ppl like Chris Hopson of NHS Providers and media medics on TV and/or with blue ticks on Twitter have spent many many months castigating the public.

Overheard this yesterday.
"maybe if the NHS is privatised and i am thought of as a paying customer rather than a covidiot or someone who must have caught Covid because i was breaking the rules, i might be seen as a human being rather that a NHS user who has some dubious moral failing because i get ill with Covid, OR a selfish bastard just because i want to see a parent at Christmas"

@MercyBooth. My husband actually came across a similar attitude from some of the hospital staff after his positive LFT - that somehow he was irresponsible for catching Covid when he was so vulnerable and why wasn’t he shielding properly given the risks. Now I know what actually happened it just infuriates me to even think about it.

@pam290358 Are you both better now or do you have some after effects Im sorry to hear about your neighbours too.

I think the way this thing has been handled and the blame directed at the public is going to do/has done damage to the NHS which they will struggle to come back from.

Yes OP every poster on here who is either Indian or who has lived in India thinks it is not racist.

@MercyBooth. We’re doing OK thank you. The effects - tiredness and residual chest infection - are still ongoing weeks later but slowly getting there. 😁

I’m in Australia and the mainstream media is practically salivating over the stories and images from India. It is a big news story here because we have a large population with links to India but they’ve gone too far.

It also plays into the hands of the ultra risk averse politicians we have here. At any suggestion of trying to open the borders once vaccinations have been completed our ‘leaders’ just say ‘well we don’t want to be like India do we’ and consequently there is no long term plan to open our country up to the world again.