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India’s second wave

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Re: India’s second wave

#21

Post by mulvya »

Hiopl wrote: post #13
mulvya wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CFR in Mumbai, so far, is less than half of the first wave. But due to the rapid rise in cases (elsewhere; Mumbai appears to have peaked on 7 Apr), there's a crunch in beds and especially oxygen.

That's always been the biggest fear with Covid, so that's not unexpected. Long ICU durations, lack of sufficient ICU spots and staff, high infection rate, low case fatality rate still means it can quickly overwhelm hospitals and lead to much higher rates of death overall. People crying "it's just a flu" were always missing the point.

But there is another factor, only recently mentioned in Indian media.

The fear factor causes many of those with means to insist on hospitalization. This article talks about it in the context of celebs [1] but I've seen it among my relatives as well where healthy young adults with moderate/high Ct values are admitted on insistence of their parents or themselves.

I read similar reporting about self-arranged oxygen use as well.

[1]: https://www.timesnownews.com/mumbai/article/mumbai-film-star...

Re: India’s second wave

#24

Post by detaro »

rataata_jr wrote: post #5

Not leading to deaths, but just increasing case numbers, that is good news.

Yes, that's what our politicians here in Germany also said. And now they don't get why people are mad at them, who could have known that the thing hospitals, the state epidemic institute and other experts warned about would actually happen, and its totally unfair to blame them for needless deaths!

Re: India’s second wave

#25

Post by qart »

Lockdowns hurt poor people very badly; they need to earn to survive. All the more reason everyone should mask up. And yet, most people stopped masking months ago. Crowds are as bad as they were in 2019.

On top of that, doctors here have created a craze for remdesivir, resulting in a blackmarket for it.

The central and state governments have mismanaged plenty of things. While they deserve their share of blame, the ordinary people have only made matters worse. Chin-mask, no-mask, herbal "remedies", religious gatherings, weddings, engagements, naming ceremonies... the list goes on.

As a truly perfect representative of the people, the chief minister here got COVID once, got vaccinated, and then got COVID a second time.

Re: India’s second wave

#26

Post by mellosouls »

molsson wrote: post #4
corty wrote: post #2

Paywall.

It would be nice if the web somehow filtered out links that one had decided to not pay for.

HN Guidelines are links should not be submitted if there is not a freely available version, or at least the wording is "It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds", which implies that.

It would be nice if OPs took more effort to post the non-paywalled alternative (in addition to the original) to avoid these discussions and complaints. Yes, I am aware complaining about paywalls is OT.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Re: India’s second wave

#28

Post by corty »

throwaway4good wrote: post #6

It is sadly predictable that the pandemic would end up becoming a permanent source of havoc in less developed part of the world, even as it comes under control in the west. This will for certain be with us for many years to come and will further distort the difference between rich and poor. Not at least helped by the nationalism in the west in form of export controls and patents.

Well, a source of havoc, maybe. But one among many, there is still Malaria, Tuberculosis, Dengue Fever, Ebola, HIV. All with far more significant consequences. That we are worrying as much about Corona as we do in the West is a consequence of those ailments being (mostly) irrelevant here.

Re: India’s second wave

#29

Post by _djo_ »

corty wrote: post #28
throwaway4good wrote: post #6

It is sadly predictable that the pandemic would end up becoming a permanent source of havoc in less developed part of the world, even as it comes under control in the west. This will for certain be with us for many years to come and will further distort the difference between rich and poor. Not at least helped by the nationalism in the west in form of export controls and patents.

Well, a source of havoc, maybe. But one among many, there is still Malaria, Tuberculosis, Dengue Fever, Ebola, HIV. All with far more significant consequences. That we are worrying as much about Corona as we do in the West is a consequence of those ailments being (mostly) irrelevant here.

This is inaccurate. COVID-19 has been far deadlier than any of those already-devastating existing diseases and conditions in places like India, South Africa, and Brazil.

In South Africa for instance, COVID-19 killed more people in 2020 than HIV/AIDS or TB.

Re: India’s second wave

#30

Post by [deleted] »

wiz21c wrote: post #12
throwaway4good wrote: post #6

It is sadly predictable that the pandemic would end up becoming a permanent source of havoc in less developed part of the world, even as it comes under control in the west. This will for certain be with us for many years to come and will further distort the difference between rich and poor. Not at least helped by the nationalism in the west in form of export controls and patents.

> less developed What do you mean by "less developed" ? Those people have been with us on earth for the very same period of time as any other human. So they have been developing themselves culturally, economically, whatever-ally as much as any other human.

[deleted]
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