Not again!
This is we would like to scream, but we have to be ready for any resurgence of Covid
As Covid devastation subsided, just when the world began believing that it has turned the corner, the pandemic fears have once again come to haunt us. Many of us would like to scream—not again! We have already suffered a great deal: lakhs of people dead in India and millions in the world, economies devastated across the globe, supply chains severely hit, life badly disrupted. But Covid seems to be a recurring nightmare, the worst sufferers this time being China, the country where the novel coronavirus began almost three years ago and spread in other countries because of the pigheadedness, or worse, of the Communist Party of China. According to an agency report many World Health Organization advisors have said that it may be “too early to declare the end of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency phase because of a potentially devastating wave to come in China.” For the Chinese, the prospects are pretty grim. A prominent scientist, Eric Feigl-Ding, has talked about infections among more than 60 per cent of China’s and 10 per cent of the Earth’s population and fatalities in the millions. Independent news organisations are presenting a frightful scenario. There are already many horrifying reports emanating from China: hospitals completely overwhelmed ever since restrictions dropped, bodies piling up at least inside one hospital.
The late surge of Covid in China is attributed primarily to the tyrannical, unrepresentative, non-participative nature of the regime that the CCP has imposed on the country, its worst features getting exacerbated because of President Xi Jinping’s megalomania and jingoism. The zero-Covid policy, which Beijing (and many liberals in the West) hailed as a successful policy against the pandemic, boomeranged on the communist autocrats who refuse to shed the we-know-what-to-do mindset. All over the world, the virus spread through various geographies and populations taking its toll; yet, the process was gradual and, as compared to China, relatively slow. Infections fortified large chunks of populations; vaccines helped more so. But Xi, being an uber-nationalist, would not allow good vaccines like Covishield and Pfizer; instead he thrust the inferior quality indigenous vaccines, which further worsened the situation. That was not all: in their obstinacy to prove that ‘we are different and the best,’ CCP bosses planned extreme restrictions and ensured that these were executed with the ruthlessness typical of a totalitarian state. But there are limits to human endurance; the people of China revolted recently against the inhuman constraints they had been suffering for months. The almost sudden end of zero-Covid policy led to the surge in pandemic infections and hospitalisations. India is aware of the danger. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has held a meeting with officials and experts “directed all concerned to be alert and strengthen surveillance. We are prepared to manage any situation.” Hopefully, no such situation will arise.
Source: PTI
