[autohead115]

This image really broke me. Let us all do our bit by donating a little and realize how fortunate we are to have a safe and comfy roof over us.

Please donate to PM Cares fund guys. (Gpay/PhonePe/UPI)

pmcares@sbi

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comme...ageshometowns/

[sunilch]

This is more bad news. Things are getting worse now:

CISF personal now test +ve

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/stor...796-2020-03-28

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by autohead115

This image really broke me. Let us all do our bit by donating a little and realize how fortunate we are to have a safe and comfy roof over us.

There was statistic- if someone is reading this message in their own owned home, they are among 1% of the privileged Indian population.

We are in this situation because our Govts are reactive. In very very few instances they are proactive. Some state Govts are now planning on hiring community halls to provide food to daily wage earners. You can imagine the pace at which our official machinery moves. But if the halls were hired earlier, if the food was distributed and allowed to take home for their families (at least 2 meals per day with 6ft distancing & with protection like masks, gloves) and then the lockdown was announced, the people would have stayed back in their homes in the cities. The social distancing goal wouldn't have gone for a toss.

* Somewhere in UP border. Similar scenes seen in other state borders as well.



*

[Zed]

Here is an interactive dashboard with quantitative data on the Covid-19 situation in EU and US. The data is from John Hopkins university.

https://sense.highcoordination.de/de...state/analysis

[Dhiwakar92]

These images of people overcrowding defeats the very purpose of the lock down. What is the point of social distancing if the the poorest in this country, the ones who can least afford to pay for healthcare get infected ?

They're suffering because of short sighted measures by short sighted leaders, we should've planned for this before initiating the lock down.

Right now, the lesser of two evils is to simply end the lock down and allow the country to start functioning, it is a bad idea, I agree, but the alternative is a lot worse, we living it now.

Another problem is that the police are beating up doctors, journalists etc.
Who is going to hold these people accountable and punish them ?

Doctors treating patients, journalists reporting on the situation in cities and communities and delivery boys serving us in these times are all doing god's work.

Something needs to change here because as things stand, it feels like the situation would be a lot better if the police were also force to self isolate in their own homes, they are not helping the situation but making it worse.

[Chetan_Rao]

Are we at least testing and treating our frontline healthcare workers and other critical caregiving staff proactively? We cannot afford those guys to be endangered, both because we need them to treat everyone else, and also because they themselves are a potentially huge infection vector while asymptomatic given the nature of their work.

Who's healing the healers?

[fhdowntheline]

The only mis-step, if you will, was that the government allowed international flights to continue till 22nd. That should have been stopped 1 week earlier. It would have allowed more time to prepare for the lockdown (although not prevent it). This is, after all, an imported infection, whether one chooses to be or not to be politically correct about it.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Who's healing the healers?

Your question has come not a moment too soon!

We need to decide whether we want our scarce resources - Doctors, nurses, supporting medical staff, hospital staff and other physical resources to be used/misused for the exclusive use of CV affected patients, OR, should we just allocate a few resources in some logical proportion.

Coming to protection - it is criminal not to provide ALL of them with CDC style suits to isolate them from the virus COMPLETELY. Would we send our loved ones to war without weapons? Why expect this group of people to sacrifice their lives for the rest of us? I hear they are working day and night to save patients - brainwashing at its best! I say just provide terminally ill patients with a big dose of morphine and be done with it. We need you doctors to stay alive.

Decisions will have to be made on allocating scarce ventilators, beds, and other resources to patients based on some ethical criteria – lets do the same with the healers. No need to stress them to their limit without any regard for their health and that of their families. The TIME IS NOW TO COME UP WITH POLICIES ON HOW TO DO THIS, NOT ON THE BATTLEGROUND. I can suggest one rule – highest priority to children, lowest priority to older folks.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by mvadg

Decisions will have to be made on allocating scarce ventilators, beds, and other resources to patients based on some ethical criteria – lets do the same with the healers. No need to stress them to their limit without any regard for their health and that of their families. The TIME IS NOW TO COME UP WITH POLICIES ON HOW TO DO THIS, NOT ON THE BATTLEGROUND. I can suggest one rule – highest priority to children, lowest priority to older folks.

I agree to your post in entirety. However harsh it may sound, but if situation snowballs we will have to make this decision. Just like Italians have done.

It is of paramount importance that all health workers be equipped with necessary PPEs. I saw an ambulance at my Condo here in Singapore that had come to pick a patient (not sure if COVID-19 related). Everyone from the helpers to the drivers are dressed in containment suits. I know it's a huge task to expect this from a country of our size. But it needs to be done if we are to come out of this pandemic and be prepared for more in future.

[tsk1979]

A very interesting video explaining how epidemics spread. The video uses various mathematical models and demonstrates how simple things like better hygiene can have a tremendous impact.
It also explains why more dangerous diseases like Ebola and SARS are safer on a global scale.

The models analyze various levels of social distancing and how it can impact spreads even without quarantines. This kind of explains why the Silicon valley has a slower growth rate as a larger percentage of people can work from home. If you love data analysis, SIR models are a fascinating tools to model large population. Reminds me of the Foundation series and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAaO2rsdIs

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by msdivy

We are in this situation because our Govts are reactive.

Originally Posted by Dhiwakar92

These images of people overcrowding defeats the very purpose of the lock down.
Something needs to change here because as things stand,

I have no idea what the administration and our politicians really do. They certainly seem to have a lot of ministries for every possible specialization, whether pollution, travel, health, epidemics, or whatever. I find it amazing that a system that deals with groups and huge masses of people don't have experts in group behaviour. We can see the same sort of lacunae in enforcement of road rules - human behaviour vs their ridiculous rules. They are incentivized to make life comfortable for themselves and no penalties if the fail to do their jobs (we don't even know what tasks have been allotted to each of these civil servants). The reason why RTI is now being opposed so vehemently, is simply so these civil servants and their masters have zero accountability to their customers, the public.
Lockdown will not help. The poor have no choice and we gave them no choice about this. Disaster has hit, it has hit them first because they are on the frontlines, it is coming for us soon. I am not at all sure if the government will realize in time that this lockdown is not possible in a diverse country like India. We are not the USA (another third world country now, it seems, given the antics of their leader).

What we urgently need (wishful thinking - but I'm an optimist):

1. Standard Operating Procedures for all situations built up and revised ahead of time
2. Make departments / divisions of the government accountable and publish their KPAs every quarter - enough with the annoying ads
3. Hire Behavioral Economists, Organizational Behavior Experts and make them accountable
4. Impose severe penalties on government officials misbehaving with the public - especially the lower levels.

And for those who accuse me of being against the government - I fully support the Delhi Government and a certain ex-administrator from a reputed engineering institution.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by msdivy

There was statistic- if someone is reading this message in their own owned home, they are among 1% of the privileged Indian population.

We are in this situation because our Govts are reactive.
Attachment 1985243

Attachment 1985244
*

The government can only be reactive if people of the country don't understand the purpose of lock down and privileged don't help the underprivileged. If the lock down was planned well in advance, all of these people will return to the villages anyway defeating the purpose of lock down.

Delhi government is providing food to lakhs of people. So food may not be the motivation for all of these who are trying to get out. To be with family in uncertain times can be a basic instinct of the people.

In our apartment we have around 20 staff. All of them belong to essential services like security and house keeping. None of them have returned. We are providing them a cash bonus of 5K per month. A ration of rice, dal, oil and vegetables also given. Also apartments take turn to provide them cooked food.So all of them are extremely happy to report to work more than ever. So there is no point in always blaming the government.

[Safety is Param]

Posting in Public Interest

[aaggoswami]

Its evident that we took some steps to handle the situation, but eventually it got out of hand or its very near to getting out of hand. Probably we could have done better. Since Jan 2020, decidedly more seriousness was required to build the necessary healthcare infrastructure just in case things went out of hand at a later stage. May be not in Jan but definitely by middle of Feb 2020, this would have ensured better preparedness to fight off this virus that has caused global havoc. Not sure what's the future, it looks like world wont be happy with China. USA clearly isn't and given the cases increasing in USA they wont be good friends with China for a long time to come. China wasn't transparent in declaring what it had full knowledge of and eventually it all lead to where world stands right now. Now we can just hope that things don't enter Stage 3 in India and by April 15, India should be limping back to normalcy.

[saisree]

This is a model paper from the CDDEP (The Center For Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy). This model computation shows a near lock down requirement until October in India and the only saving grace is social distancing.

As many quoted, we always have a reactive government. We being a large country in terms of size, population, poverty, low literacy and with a resistive govt functionaries, we are doomed to experience this. - "75 years to announce, we are open defecation free". Are we?

Other way to look at this is, We don't have a first hand experience or information. What we are seeing is a imported virus and the strength and capabilities of this virus is unknown until WHO declared it a pandemic. Look at the video in the post around 21:45. It tells us what it needs to have a responsive system in place and why many countries round the globe is facing extreme difficulties in handling this pandemic.

Wish the government take its learning here and start implementing it in the future outbreaks regardless of home grown or imported.

Being optimistic, I believe we will be out of this pandemic hale and healthy. And our people will learn one or two to stay and keep the surrounding clean.

Originally Posted by dailydriver

COVID-19 and the great Chinese puzzle
[b]

After all these questions, China bars foreign visitors as imported cases rise of Corona Virus. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was "suspending the entry of foreign nationals" because of the "rapid spread of Covid-19 across the world".

You gave it to the world as a New Year treat and now blame the receivers.