Let’s learn to sail in the waves

Nagpur: The general consensus after the first wave was that the worst is over and normal life can slowly resume. But the second wave caught everybody, right from government to experts to common people, off-guard.
It also defied the belief that Indians are more resilient due to our exposure to unhygienic surroundings and history of past infections. “We are equally vulnerable as other countries,” said Dr Pankaj Harkut, a cardiologist, who also pointed out that slow pace of vaccination due to initial hesitancy among the vulnerable population, non-adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour and mutation in the virus are responsible for the second wave.
Dr Harkut emphasized on studying the virus for mutations while preparing for the next wave.
According to Dr Himanshu Patil, endocrinologist and diabetologist, lowering the guard after the first wave and mutation in the virus caused the second wave. “Now, we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” he said.
Pointing that there was premature celebration after the first wave ended, Dr Shubhada Khirwadkar, senior paediatrician and former president of IAP Nagpur, said three Ps mattered. “First is paucity of resources, both human and technical, pressure that led the virus to become more contagious and lack of preventive measures,” she said.
Most experts had declared that the second wave would not be severe. So, what went wrong?
Giving insight into what happened in Nagpur, Avinash Thakre, ruling party leader in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), said that only about a month after cases began rising rapidly, we came to know that a double mutant was in circulation. “Had the experts warned us, our preparations could have been better. We can’t blame the experts too, probably they too didn’t expect this,” he said.
On the slow pace of vaccination, Thakre too said there was hesitancy initially and only after the third report about Covaxin trials came out, the turnout increased. He emphasized that the authority was not lacking in efforts but even after increasing the bed capacity to 10,000, they proved inadequate.
Khirwadkar attributed the delay in getting data about virus mutation to not enough genome sequencing. “Investment in research labs is definitely lacking,” she said.
Neurosurgeon Dr Ninad Shrikhande blamed over-confidence of people and government, lack of knowledge and an underprepared administration for the devastating second wave. “We did not learn from experience of developed countries like US,” he said.
Dr Shrikhande strongly felt that instead of last year, the nationwide lockdown was needed at this juncture. Countering this, Thakre said last year’s lockdown allowed us to control the spread and helped gather more knowledge about the virus, prepare our resources and manpower to fight it.
“As far as Nagpur is concerned, the administration had reserved 2,900 beds only for Covid patients in November 2020. The capacity was increased to 3,900 in March but nobody could have thought the requirement would reach around 13,000,” he said.
The city required 70 tonnes oxygen in the first wave. “The administration then made provision for 110 tonnes, but 280 tonnes oxygen was needed at the peak of second wave. Yet, we arranged it on time,” said Thakre.
According to Dr Patil, there was no fear of pandemic after the first wave, which led to superspreader events.
Joseph George, president of NGO Together We Can, felt the NMC office-bearers and bureaucrats had always been at loggerheads over handling of the pandemic. He claimed that in February when he had warned municipal commissioner that things were going out of hand, the reply was “nothing is going to happen”.
“Gatherings and marriages were stopped only from the last week of February. By that time damage had already been done. NMC is not prepared for the third wave,” he said.
Thakre responded that in a pandemic a municipal corporation was responsible for only quarantining people. “Yet, NMC created bed facility,” he said.
Experts across the world are stressing mass vaccination was the only way to end the pandemic, but India has been slow so far. On this, Dr Shrikhande said the government placed the vaccine order very late. “There was over confidence on part of government, which is quite evident now,” he said.
Dr (Major) Vaibhav Chandankhede, head & neck surgeon, IGGMCH, said he would like to look at solutions rather than pondering over mistakes. He said need was to speed up the vaccination drive for 18-44 age group. Dr Khirwadkar too said covering this group quickly will also prevent infection among children. George made it clear that vaccinating rural population was going to be a big challenge.
Khirwadkar confirmed that vaccine trials have started for the 2-18 age group. “We would be ready to vaccinate them maybe after 4-6 months,” she said and emphasized on motivating children and their families to follow measures like sanitization, wearing mask and physical distancing. IAP is conducting awareness programmes in this regard, she said.
Referring to reports that 8,000 children were infected in Ahmednagar district in May, Kalyani Deshpande Marpakwar, assistant government pleader in high court and a mother, said that CSR funds being collected by the administration from big companies can be used for creating health infrastructure and providing medicines for children. “Protecting children needs to be the priority as vaccine is not available for them yet,” she said.
“Now, health should be the priority above all else. Spending on health infrastructure should increase. Right now, make vaccination mandatory,” said Renu Mohile, homemaker and mother of young children.