[vibbs]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, there really is nothing extra-ordinary that India has done, or that we have been overtly aggressive since the early days. A part of me tells me there is under-reporting of actual Coronavirus cases here. Reasons could be the authorities intentionally suppressing facts to avoid panic, or lack of testing & knowledge.
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GTO, I share your sentiment. However I only just hinted at this on a FB post and it was construed as ramblings of a newly converted NRI criticising India as usual.

Many people have been sharing how India has so less number of infected cases and this is due to the great work of the Indian government. My first reaction was the same. Do we know the full picture? I don't think there is a gross under reporting in India, but I don't know what number of samples have been tested and if this is sufficient in a nation of our size and if we are sure we are covering all suspect cases the way it should be. Remember 80% will get cured without any major intervention so it's easy to skip detection. But for the sake of remaining 20% it is essential to get tested and follow protocol.

I read somewhere that till date we have tested 6700 samples across the country. In comparison, the article you shared about China mentioned that at the peak they were testing thousands per day.

Are we ready for that kind of scale up? It looks highly unlikely that the lady who fled from Bangalore to Agra has not infected anyone on the way. She took a train from Delhi!

Anyways not drumming up the panic. Stay safe guys. Most cases following social distancing and washing hands before touching your face should go a long way to help us keep it at bay.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by GTO

A part of me tells me there is under-reporting of actual Coronavirus cases here. Reasons could be the authorities intentionally suppressing facts to avoid panic, or lack of testing & knowledge.

I agree with what you are saying. There could be unintentional underreporting too.

I find it hard to believe that in a country as densely populated as ours, with such poor precautions being taken and general lack of civic sense, we have merely ~100 cases???

I shudder to think what will happen when it starts making inroads into our villages. Heck, even the small towns have very poor civic sense.

Be safe, guys. My recreation activity for Sunday is going for a long drive, taking a u-turn and coming back home.

This is another recreational activity.

Being a health professional, it's impossible to stay away from being in public contact unless I shut down my clinic. I'm taking necessary precautions but it's difficult to keep track of patients. I've started asking them where all have they been in last few months and 10 days since this visit. I'm paranoid. But then, can't take chances with aged parents and a toddler at home. Plus with this flu season, everyone looks like a potential threat. My city had 30℃ temperature 3 days back, now it's hovering around 21℃ due to rains. Again it will shoot up and create more flu cases.

[Sawyer]

I am in the camp that believes that all that GoI is doing is shutting the door after the horse has bolted, using circular logic that is there to see for anyone that has an iota of common sense and a questioning bent of mind. Nothing that the GoI has done till now allows me to trust anything that they say, and the muscular nationalism in this context is as laughable as it is in every other way.

But what is the alternative? We can't give up and commit economic hara kiri with much higher costs and consequences than the virus directly. So for now, ironically, it is better to pretend that the GoI playbook is a good one and play along with GoI.

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

2008 book "End of Days" by Sylvia Browne.

Attachment 1980081

But Snopes says this:

Ahh...thank you for that. So it is not fiction but a claimed prophecy. I too believe the lucky guess accusation against the claim for being able to prophesy. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind if Covid soon mysteriously disappears, per the prophecy!

NOTE FROM SUPPORT - Please use the edit or multi-quote [Quote+] button instead of typing one reply after another in the same thread.

[V.Narayan]

The usual India sucks, India bashing going on here. What more would you like GoI to be doing - please list it. Easy to sit and crib. Harder to come up with practical cogent suggestions. For all the cribbing India has reacted much faster and taken a lot more active steps than USA or most European countries.

Yes there could be thousands of infected people in India who don't know they are infected and who will recover in the normal course. Exactly the same is the case in Italy or the UK or even USA - where also their Govt does not have and cannot have a handle on each and every case.

I work in the community health care space. Come in contact with a lot of patients from the poorer sections of society. I use a mask when needed, wash my hands regularly, do salt water gargle twice a day and get on with my life.

[Sawyer]

In a stressful time such as this, I will only point out that it is not correct to equate GoI bashing with India bashing. The two are quite separate things.

[groom]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, there really is nothing extra-ordinary that India has done, or that we have been overtly aggressive since the early days. A part of me tells me there is under-reporting of actual Coronavirus cases here. Reasons could be the authorities intentionally suppressing facts to avoid panic, or lack of testing & knowledge.

I find it hard to believe that in a country as densely populated as ours, with such poor precautions being taken and general lack of civic sense, we have merely ~100 cases???

Be safe, guys. My recreation activity for Sunday is going for a long drive, taking a u-turn and coming back home.

In India, i trust the immunity of Indians. Same during the case of SARS and H1N1. Not many people are infected because for us its a weak virus and a warm country like us dont need much worries. All high risk countries with high data are still transitting from cold temperatures moreover also have significant older population.

Thailand, Singapore Hongkong, Tokyo and Shanghai dont have high hit rates inspite of early cases several weeks ahead of India. These cities have high density and also high tourist influx.

BTW, having crossed Indian border twice in last 6weeks, the checks are quite thorough.

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, there really is nothing extra-ordinary that India has done, or that we have been overtly aggressive since the early days. A part of me tells me there is under-reporting of actual Coronavirus cases here. Reasons could be the authorities intentionally suppressing facts to avoid panic, or lack of testing & knowledge.

It is all but certain that we are at the fag end of the individual transmission phase or possibly well into the community transmission phase. I'm not really worried about the under reporting because all of the European countries have done the same. The disease has an approximately 20 day head start prior to public awareness and administrative steps, so I'm expecting a steep & literally exponential increase in the count over the next 20 days. That, again, will be in line with what we've seen happen everywhere.

What is worrying me is the duration between when it goes exponential and when the curve starts to flatten. This is the period when the infrastructure will be stretched to the limits with hospitals overflowing and public life severely affected. With our high percentage of BPL migratory population and poor capability in controlling inter-state travel, this is where we could see a lot of people travelling to their home cities and spreading the disease. In case of China this period took less than a month due to extreme steps. But they already have a de facto checkpoint system between the various regions, which they could use to stop cross country travel. Europe and us will fare worse, much worse.

The other part worrying me is the high risk population. Italy for example can lose up to 20% of their population theoretically as they fall in the elderly high risk category. Thankfully we have a comparatively young population. Will medical infrastructure be over burdened to treat the 12% high risk to an extent that it cannot help the remaining 78%?

All in all we've just been par for the course so far and the next 3 weeks will be crucial. I don't think we have done anything excellent so far or are particularly well placed as a country and society to handle this.

[srishiva]

Had to attend a marriage yesterday night. Authorities came and told many people can't be assembling at a time. Even the hosts made sure everyone had dinner and left early. I think people are very much aware of the need to keep distance. Mostly namaskars everywhere.

We need to keep in mind that virus has to have come in from people traveling to india. So if travellers are screened and if they co operate, theoretically its possible to control. Indian authorities including karnataka govt are being more proactive because we know our facilities can't cope up if it goes out of control.

[Sawyer]

I have never done anything to help a video go viral, but this morning I received one that deserves to go all over the world in a time of crisis.

And, it is hilarious as a welcome added bonus; although it does contain adult language:-).

I have done what I could via my what's app contact list, and I think this place is another way to do that - obviously I would ask that anyone that does pass it on should first satisfy themselves that it deserves to be passed on.

The video itself is a 6 mb mp4 file; how do I get it loaded here? I can even send it to someone via PM if that works.

[wrongturn]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The usual India sucks, India bashing going on here. What more would you like GoI to be doing - please list it.

And GOI has infact been more alert and cautious in comparison to most of the other nations.

[ckranjan]

While GOI is certainly not the best in the world w.r.t to the counter claims against GOI figures is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and the burden falls on one making the claim. If you cant do that then you are just fear-mongering which is not the right strategy at the moment.

Stay safe guys and take all precautions.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The usual India sucks, India bashing going on here.

Please don't take my post as "India bashing". Am extremely patriotic & a big fan of the government. But I'm not blind. My post is constructive criticism based on first-hand information I am receiving from doctors at Hinduja Hospital & Breach Candy hospital.

Anyway, let's chill and NOT make this a government thread. Please focus on coronavirus ONLY.

Thanks for the support & understanding

[wrongturn]

Originally Posted by GTO

Please don't take my post as "India bashing". Am extremely patriotic & a big fan of the government.

Thanks for the support & understanding

Your post wasn't, we are having a discussion here and we should all be able put out thoughts out here, more we explore this topic more answers we will have.

Meanwhile WHO says the Coronavirus can be transmitted in areas with hot and humid climate.

[hondafanboy]

We should focus on what we and our families , relatives located in densely populated places mostly in metro, tier 1 ,2 3 cities are doing or should do in such times and not what government is or should be doing. Believe that all of us will land on the other side by doing what we can and we will be there.

[AltoLXI]

This all started with the bats and humans consuming the bats. Neeltje van Doremalen who appears in the video at 43 seconds is a scientist working on the corona viruses has this to say on her twitter

We found that viable virus could be detected in aerosols up to 3 hours post aerosolization, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel.

They put the Covid19 virus in a nebulizer and then on to a rotating drum to make it airborne. The results were based on how long the virus stays airborne. Post the experiments she also tells,

This is not evidence of aerosol transmission.

https://youtu.be/2DsVhaXx8_I