The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has imposed a three week lockdown on the nation of 1.3 billion people, telling them to "forget what going out means."
“From 12 midnight today, the entire country will go under a complete lockdown to save India and for every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes. Therefore, I request you to remain wherever you are in this country.”
“If we are not able to manage this pandemic in the next 21 days, the country and your family will be set back by 21 years. If we are not able to manage the next 21 days, then many families will be destroyed forever.”
So far India has had a relatively low number of coronavirus cases, with 469 infections and 10 deaths so far, and the government had already introduced stringent measures to try to halt local transmission in a country where millions live in densely populated conditions with terrible sanitation and limited healthcare access.
There are currently only 40,000 ventilators in India, one isolation bed per 84,000 people and one doctor per 11,600 Indians. More than 1.8 million people across the country are being monitored because they have shown symptoms of the illness, travelled from abroad or been exposed to confirmed cases.
.. I believe I posted this in a 2nd comment to Lorne at Politics and Its Discontents.. early yesterday. Here it is again.. it answers your question better than any.. and by a country mile. Dr Brilliant and his peers are stunning 'doers'.. I would like to find a transcript of this TedTalk at the time (mid Feb) he accepted the TedTalk Award. In my view the video is a Must Watch as he explains the 'HOW' to stamping out an epidemic such as Small Pox, among others
ReplyDeleteAlso, in my opinion, it may be very useful and sobering.. to seach youtube, On The Beach, Opening Scene.. reading the book, by Nevil Shute provides the same or even better reality check.. despite being fiction that I read in the 50's. My Great Aunt Anne left Kenilworth in Wellington County, Ontario to study Nursing in New York City, circa 1010 in a sanitarium hospital that served wealthy patients. Yes she survived the Spanish Flu at the hospital.. and became the chief hospital administrator. My sister has thank you letters to her from Dwight Eisenhauer, Joseph McCarthy's widow and General MacArthur re condolence letters she wrote in that role
https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_my_wish_help_me_stop_pandemics
.. I now believe that video is approx 10 years old.. yet it is just as valid !! Astonishing !
ReplyDeleteThanks,Sal.
ReplyDeleteModi? Well, he can probably save the Muslims if nobody else. For them the rule will be "Come out of your homes, and the police will kill you." His biggest problem will be, mobs forming up for pogroms will kill more of each other through transmission than of their victims.
ReplyDeleteProbably won't have much impact on Kashmir. With phone and internet access there cut, do they even know there's a pandemic on? Busy dealing with Modi's military occupation, will they be in a position to care? But they're probably doing more hiding than moving around, so disease spread not much of an issue.
What I wonder, PLG, is how Modi will deal with access to what meagre healthcare exists in India. Mumbai, Delhi each teem with populations of 18+ million, a lot of them slum dwellers.
ReplyDeleteYou've got one isolation bed for every 84,000 people. Officially, the caste system is gone but it's very much alive under the radar.
True enough. And most of those slum dwellers will starve if they stop working; it's like the American situation writ large. How likely is he to underwrite the wages of the underclass?
ReplyDeleteOne bright spot seems to be the state of Kerala, which has a history of social democrats and nominal commies in government.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/26/an-often-overlooked-region-of-india-is-a-beacon-to-the-world-for-taking-on-the-coronavirus/