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India’s second wave

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381–390 of 477 posts

Re: India’s second wave

#381

The fact that the official numbers are through the roof tell you how bad the unofficial (and real) numbers are. In the past week, there have been reports from several cities where the number of Covid deaths are measured in single digits - yet crematoriums are so full that people have started cremating their dead ones on sidewalks.

This Govt has been lying so consistently that people have stopped asking now.

It’s surreal in its darkest sense. It’s killing out there. People are dying on hospital floors lying and running out of air in their lungs because let alone oxygen cylinders there are not even empty simple beds of stretchers.

Daily deaths are easily in high 5 digits. At least!

High walls have been put around the place where pyres are burnt (so that they can easily fudge the numbers). There's no accountability. There has not been any since last 3-4 years now. Most of the media any is Govt mouthpiece. Every machinery/pillar of the state has been subverted and subjugated - press, election commission, judiciary. Indian bureaucracy was anyway always as bad as it gets.

A week ago one of the cities (Bhopal) released death count as 4. A local newspaper flew a drone above one COVID funeral ground and in its main page printed the photo of the burning pyres (those are COVID specific funerals). In that one drone shot at least 20+ pyres were burning. They put the number as 112 (or more) [0]

Govt released death count = 4

Min. number of deaths (as many the news paper was able to track) = 112

And this was just one city (tier 2 at that) and 7 days ago!

[0] (image of burning pyres - please decide if you want to click the link) https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/04/16/burning-pyres-telling...

Re: India’s second wave

#382

Based on over a year's worth of global data, it is reasonable to highly correlate confirmed positive infections with death counts, with only the degree varying from 2% to 6%. Using "official" numbers alone, and the exponential growth they have exhibited in the past week, it is impossible to deny that an unmitigated disaster is unfolding before our eyes in India. Speculate and blame all you want, the situation is dead…

> Using "official" numbers alone

Those are corroborated by sentinel cases in Australia. The rate has risen to the point where quarantine is struggling to cope, and the doctors' union has suggested a complete ban on flights from India.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-21/nt-covid-active-cases...

Re: India’s second wave

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unable to afford $2400 month housing in an expensive city isn't the same thing as destitute. There's houses available in much of the country for $100,000 or less. I'm fine arguing that people can have the option to struggle paying high rent or move, we don't need to pay the high rent just because they prefer the place.

Those houses are $100k or less because the only jobs nearby don't pay enough to buy something more expensive.

What does that matter if the house is in good condition and has a sensible amount of room for a family?

Re: India’s second wave

#384
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a small fraction of what Europe has experienced. https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explor...

And Belgium counted every possible related death as covid related. Overreporting 100%

Now that excess mortality figures are available for comparison, Belgium's reporting looks in line with e.g. France or Israel:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.27.21250604v...

As in several other countries, Belgium's excess mortality was lower than the number of reported COVID deaths, but that's most likely because there was a lower number of flu deaths than usual.

Re: India’s second wave

#385
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely this. People who refuse to wear a mask around others, or intentionally wear one poorly are just telegraphing how little they care for other people.

I'm vaccinated, why the hell should I wear a mask besides the fact that the government says so? The odds of me having any detectable viral load to transmit are extremely low. [1] [1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0329-COVID-19-Vacci...

> I'm vaccinated, why the hell should I wear a mask

0. To prevent fresh distribution of constantly mutating variants so that we don't lose this wonderful chance we currently have of ending the pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-...

1. Signaling to intransigent anti-vax anti-maskers that wearing a mask is the right thing to do for the sake of others, because social messaging works.

2. Making it harder for intransigent anti-vax anti-maskers to blend in.

3. Informing others around you in a communicating society that you care about them, because nobody but you knows that you're vaccinated.

4. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belt-and-suspende...

b. It costs you nothing.

I'll probably think of other reasons later, but these seem good enough for now.

Re: India’s second wave

#386
post #372

The problem with subcontinent countries is that their citizens mostly believe in pseudo science promoted by religious celebrities. Yesterday I was reading that Baba Ram Dev has suggested to inhale olive oil which will push covid-19 virus in stomach where it'd be killed by stomach acid. Such ppl exist here in Pakistan too one way and other and I see ppl don't bother to use masks when going mosques. Not sure what kind…

I haven't heard this particular Baba Ramdev remedy, though I don't think he'd suggest olive oil - he'd pick something native.

Part of the issue in the Indian middle class (with presumably similar things in Pakistan) is the strong desire to find wisdom in old folk remedies. I can't begin to count the number of WhatsApp forwards early in the pandemic touting gargling with salt water as a means to combat the virus. That, or nigella seeds, ginger, tulsi, ghee, etc.

Re: India’s second wave

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was born poor. You can get out of being poor. You cannot get out of being dalit[0]. > While their struggles are real they do not see themselves as losers but rather see themselves as strugglers who will eventually make it some day. Only about 20% of Indians can afford to have even aspirations. About 66% cannot. 18% struggle to even survive. Newspaper? They would eat it. [1] (data from 2016) > They then propose th…

Now consider what you and the sibling comment say in the context of a representative democracy. How many of the people that truly have no food to eat will go to vote? Or, how easy are they to corrupt?

India is not even close to having a government that represents the people's interests. However, it does have a true "representative democracy" in the sense that the votes are real. The voters sure have been coerced and bribed, but at least the counting machinery works and is respected.

Re: India’s second wave

#389
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm vaccinated, why the hell should I wear a mask besides the fact that the government says so? The odds of me having any detectable viral load to transmit are extremely low. [1] [1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0329-COVID-19-Vacci...

> I'm vaccinated, why the hell should I wear a mask 0. To prevent fresh distribution of constantly mutating variants so that we don't lose this wonderful chance we currently have of ending the pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-... 1. Signaling to intransigent anti-vax anti-maskers that wearing a mask is the right thing to do for the sake of others, because social messaging works. 2…

So it is really about signaling your affiliation at this point. At least you admit it. I wore a mask since last summer but the idea that I still need to wear it for no medical purpose, when over half of eligible Americans have received at least one shot and that number is rising every day, is just pure performative politics.

And the cost isn’t zero. It prevents others from seeing my face which is a critical component of social interaction. This was an acceptable cost last fall when cases were surging and we had no cure, but now it’s just ridiculous. I’ll get downvoted I’m sure, but if the mask mandates continue past May it’ll be a very strong sign that they were never primarily about following the science.

Re: India’s second wave

#390
post #52

This is what I feared the first time would be, but somehow the virus spared India. The first time around majority of the population was careful, masked up and stayed indoors. The death was super low. That caused people to get over confident, people believed that covid is not harmful in the country and they fully ignored it. Now there is an Indian variant of the virus which apparently and the infection rates and death…

Holi + Mahashivratri + Kumbh + IPL + election rallies

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