[dragonfire]

MoHFW says that India is the fastest to vaccinate 4 million, reports ToI.



That statistics, I think is deceptive. What should matter is how fast you vaccinate the entire population, so we should be looking at the percentage vaccinated and not the absolute numbers.

I think they would be done with healthcare workers in another 2 weeks, and then the turn for the general population comes. Am curious to see how they manage the "queue".

[saisree]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

I think they would be done with healthcare workers in another 2 weeks, and then the turn for the general population comes. Am curious to see how they manage the "queue".

That’s where the CoWin app, Aadhar comes in to the picture. There will be slots and the date and time of vaccination will be SMS’ed after registration through the app. IMHO, they should have upgraded the Aarogya Sethu app itself for this.

Addition Read

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

I think they would be done with healthcare workers in another 2 weeks, and then the turn for the general population comes.

I guess there's still a long way to go for the general population's vaccination to start. As per the MoHFW, this is the "official" priority:

1. Public & private healthcare workers
2. Frontline & municipal workers
3. Population above 50 years (and below 50 years with co-morbidities)
4. General population (below 50 without co-morbidities)

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

I think they would be done with healthcare workers in another 2 weeks, and then the turn for the general population comes. Am curious to see how they manage the "queue".

With number of new cases dropping rapidly, I wonder if there is going to be a queue at all. Senior citizens and those with co-morbidities may opt to go for the vaccine, and that queue can definitely be managed.

[Gansan]

I read an article by a doctor from TN who studied the statistics of various countries. He says in almost all the countries after a peak there was a noticeable trough/tapering off before a second wave or peak. Such as the U.S, UK,Italy and Brazil currently. He says the gap is roughly eight months. India's peak was in September. If the pattern repeats, next wave may be roughly around July. He feels that is why the government wants to vaccinate 300 million people by that time.

It will not be prudent to let down our guard. Already private hospitals are authorized to vaccinate. As soon as it is available at Apollo, I will take my family, pay and take the shot.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I read an article by a doctor from TN who studied the statistics of various countries. He says in almost all the countries after a peak there was a noticeable trough/tapering off before a second wave or peak. Such as the U.S, UK,Italy and Brazil currently. He says the gap is roughly eight months. India's peak was in September. If the pattern repeats, next wave may be roughly around July. He feels that is why the government wants to vaccinate 300 million people by that time.
.

If you take a look at USA's Covid graph, they had one peak around 17-July, and then a trough around 7-Sep, before it began rising again and reached its second peak around 10-Jan. By the same token, India's peak was mid-September, and we should have begun a rise by December or so, and probably on our way to a peak by mid-Feb.

I think one factor is that most of India is outdoors even during winter, unlike Europe and USA. That would have also mitigated some of the risks of severe spreads.

[bblost]

I went to Ikea (Hyderabad) last Wednesday morning. It was almost empty and I had a relaxed time shopping inside. Forgot one item.

Today (Friday), I went at 4 PM. The parking did not appear crowded but I was in for a huge surprise.

It was jam packed inside.
Once inside its very difficult to exit without going thru the maze they have.
I took the reverse route and quickly came to ground floor. Picked up what I needed and rushed to the billing counter.
No concept of social distancing.

I had to be very firm in insisting the couple with a baby to move away from me. Then this young girl wants to cut thru the line in front of me because I have left a lot of space.

There were a lot of old people and an equally large number of babies.
These are all educated people who have neither common sense nor fear. Some of them do have cellphones, which they use to take selfies inside the shop.

[Thad E Ginathom]

How about people who remove their masks to talk into their phones. Loudly, of course.

[itwasntme]

Saw these devices at a HDFC office:
https://www.eurekaforbes.com/forbescoronaguard

Do they really work?

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

How about people who remove their masks to talk into their phones. Loudly, of course.

I have been to hospitals where receptionists, admins and those nurses in charge of "ambience of personal care" were moving their masks to their chin, to show that they were smiling when talking to us. Not naming any of them, because I dont have lawyer-money lying around.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

How about people who remove their masks to talk into their phones. Loudly, of course.

Last evening I was waiting outside my wife's office in my car, to pick her up. I saw the security chap sitting in his chair, properly wearing his mask. Then I saw one lady worker come out of the building, calling this fellow's name. She was also properly wearing a mask and I felt pleased.

Then he got up asking "what?" and went near her. Both of them were standing face to face, just a couple of feet apart. Both lowered the masks below the jaw and talked animatedly for a few minutes. Then both raised the masks properly above the nose, this fellow returned to his chair and she went back inside.

End of story!

[Zen2001]

Originally Posted by joslicx

Well the pandemic could just have turned out differently as well, who knew! It could have turned out deadly for us as well just like some other countries. Nobody knew anything for at least first few months. Doctors had no treatment for it, different doctors were trying different things everywhere hoping something will work.

At least the initial fear mongering was justified. Pandemics can be very unpredictable, at least initially when not much is known about them so it's better to be cautious. Whatever we are saying now is with benefit of hindsight but 10 months back situation was very different with hardly any credible data to work with.

As a doctor, basic knowledge and common sense regarding viral respiratory illnesses which are 19 to the dozen in India, I seriously doubted any "deadly" predictions, other than the usual standard deviation from previously known morbidity and mortality statistics. Perhaps you will all know that Covid 19 mortality in India stands at approx 1.5-1.6 lakhs, but how many know that TB STILL causes THRICE the number of deaths every year, year after year? The government is squarely responsible for generating the fear mongering atmosphere amongst the public. I have known municipal commissioners threaten hospital owners/directors with income tax audits, biomedical waste audits and other such harassing criteria just to force Covid beds out of them for free.
Regarding "treatment", it's nothing new that most viral illnesses have no specific antiviral treatment and Covid19 is no exception. Basic precautions and common sense is all that is required. Other than a "something is better than nothing" protection for those immediately at high risk of infection & complications, even the vaccine is not going to make any difference in the long run. Regarding the so called effective "lockdown", there are enough mathematical models which have since thrown this intervention into the garbage, but the scientifically blind will never agree.

The Indian Express: Pune: Not a single patient at two Covid care centres with 600 beds, but bill runs up to Rs 5 crore.
https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...crore-7177061/

This is how well this entire fiasco has been "managed" by the govt officials - in this case, the PCMC. Interesting situation here. This is merely one example, not even the top of the tip of this iceberg.. The more "jumbo" your scheme, the fatter will be your pockets. At the tax payers expense, as usual. I for one in Pune know that the PMC and PCMC kept upto 18 of its existing although sparsely manpowered civic hospitals SHUT at the peak in July-August while crores exchanged hands under the pretext of jumbo Covid centres.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by Zen2001

As a doctor, basic knowledge and common sense regarding viral respiratory illnesses which are 19 to the dozen in India, I seriously doubted any "deadly" predictions, other than the usual standard deviation from previously known morbidity and mortality statistics. Perhaps you will all know that Covid 19 mortality in India stands at approx 1.5-1.6 lakhs, but how many know that TB STILL causes THRICE the number of deaths every year, year after year? The government is squarely responsible for generating the fear mongering atmosphere amongst the public. I have known municipal commissioners threaten hospital owners/directors with income tax audits, biomedical waste audits and other such harassing criteria just to force Covid beds out of them for free.
Regarding "treatment", it's nothing new that most viral illnesses have no specific antiviral treatment and Covid19 is no exception. Basic precautions and common sense is all that is required. Other than a "something is better than nothing" protection for those immediately at high risk of infection & complications, even the vaccine is not going to make any difference in the long run. Regarding the so called effective "lockdown", there are enough mathematical models which have since thrown this intervention into the garbage, but the scientifically blind will never agree..

Fully agree with you. There are a lot of arguments about how the future was unknown and the risk was was potentially so high that taking drastic measures like a total unplanned nationwide lockdown was the prudent course of action. On the contrary, the more draconian and harmful the step, the higher should be the threshold of evidence required to initiate it. Why couldn’t we have started with closing down extremely crowded places like movie theaters and kept factories and markets open with masks and social distancing? Perhaps work at 25% capacity in 2 shifts on alternate days. Daily about 25k people die in India from various illnesses. Until and unless at least 4 times that number started dying from only coronavirus with no comorbidity issues, I would not have even started any kind of partial lockdown. I realise the argument that it would be too late by then but taking a step that would destroy the economy and render hundreds of millions jobless in addition to untold misery and complete erosion of liberty needs hard evidence. Why start certain damage and hardship for an unproven possible danger? The sensible thing is to take reasonable steps while monitoring the situation and keep the public informed throughout the process with sufficient time for preparation.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

. Daily about 25k people die in India from various illnesses. Until and unless at least 4 times that number started dying from only coronavirus with no comorbidity issues, I would not have even started any kind of partial lockdown.

Well, the other illnesses are really not a valid marker as they are not as infectious. A lot of people died in countries like Spain, Italy, France, UK, US etc and their healthcare system had completely collapsed. This virus was spreading fast and no definitive cure was known at that time. People were dying on roads for lack of medical care. I don't know why that is not a factor in discussing what steps we had to take. We do not have any robust healthcare system to take care of millions of cases if that had become a reality. For government and authorities prevention was the priority. If we had millions of poor people who were infected and who needed hospitalization, just imagine what would have happened. How many would have found a bed in a hospital ?

Thankfully this virus has largely turned out to be harmless for most people but there are really deadly viruses out there, like Ebola. I think any administration will have to be conservative while dealing with any viral outbreak. Things can go south very fast and then you only would be crying hoarse why government didn't take appropriate measures to prevent deaths.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Zen2001

Perhaps you will all know that Covid 19 mortality in India stands at approx 1.5-1.6 lakhs, but how many know that TB STILL causes THRICE the number of deaths every year, year after year?

Just over a year ago, I spent a couple of hours with a visitor, a good friend of my wife, who had had serious health problems, yet to be diagnosed, for a protracted period. In the end, it was diagnosed as TB, eventually getting her the appropriate treatment. We didn't catch it. None of the people she worked with caught it. What if it had been a few months later and it had been covid?

The government is squarely responsible for generating the fear mongering atmosphere amongst the public. I have known municipal commissioners threaten hospital owners/directors with income tax audits, biomedical waste audits and other such harassing criteria just to force Covid beds out of them for free.

I don't doubt that there has been all kinds of dodgy business going on. There are always leeches ready to suck blood and turn others' misfortune to their advantage.

But The Government? You must have noticed what other countries, other governments have been doing too? You must be aware of the situation in UK. You must know about USA?

I really don't think that you are one of those weird-conspiracy guys who thinks that entities such as "the government[s]" and "the media" have made it all up. It is not beyond belief that some governments must have seen a silver lining to covid, getting some people off their streets, but fearmongering implies an intent beyond perhaps having simply got it wrong. Look at the guy who admits to have purposely underplayed the dangers, and look at the American result. His mistake was that he didn't fearmonger.