Coronavirus Reads, Digest 25
India extends lockdown for 2 more weeks with some relaxations, many American states lift "stay-at-home" orders.
It’s Saturday, May 2nd.
I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about “herd immunity” from people exasperated with the side effects of the lockdown.
So will “herd immunity” work for India? I prefer to rely on public health experts on this. In this piece, epidemiologists Devi Sridhar and Genevie Fernandes argue that “relying on mass infection to build resistance” will not work, and could instead be a dangerous approach causing millions of deaths and massively overwhelm the healthcare system.
They note 3 reasons why it won’t:
1) It isn’t known yet how long immunity will last or if reinfection can actually be prevented.
2) Despite India’s younger population, significant percentages of even the young have underlying conditions like hypertension and diabetes. With multigenerational homes, it will be tough to isolate the elderly.
3) A lack of compliance of social distancing measures and large gatherings (common in India) could lead to infection quickly spreading and the healthcare infrastructure will not be able to support the influx of cases.
Read on for details on the approach they suggest instead:
Why Herd Immunity Won’t Save India From COVID-19, Foreign Policy
India news
India saw its biggest single day rise in cases on Friday, of 2,333 (1,000 of which were in the state of Maharashtra). Also late yesterday, the government announced an extension of the lockdown for another 2 weeks, but with significant relaxations in areas with fewer cases from May 4th (Monday).
It has broken the country intored, orange and green outbreak zones, and released a detailed (if complicated) list of protocols based on the zones.
Most cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Pune, Chennai are classified red zones, which means they will continue to have high levels of restrictions and movement only for essential items and services. This article in the Hindustan Times has a map of the zones and an explanation of what’s allowed and what’s still banned. (TLDR: relaxation on standalone shops, alcohol, but no air or train travel, no restaurants, no malls, no movie theaters. Salons allowed in green and orange zones).
Meanwhile, after over 35 days of the lockdown, the government has allowed special train services to transport migrant workers back to their homes. The first train transported 1,200 migrants from the southern state of Telangana to Ranchi, Jharkhand in the north.
Indian embassies abroad have started reaching out to Indian nationals who have been stuck outside the country, as plans are being made to allow them to return as restrictions get relaxed.
Controversially, it seems the Aarogya Setu app, the government’s contact tracing app is becoming compulsory because it’s increasingly being needed at stores, workplaces and checkpoints. Several security issues have been flagged about it, as personal data from the app can be shared with any governmental agency.
India's Aarogya Setu Contact Tracing App That Narendra Modi Urged People To Download Might Be Required For E-Passes, Telemedicine, And Access To Pharmacies, by Pranav Dixit, Buzzfeed
While there has been much discussion about the need for ventilators, Anoo Bhuyan reports on how there could be a lack of oxygen facilities in hospitals. The lockdown has caused disruptions in the supply of oxygen cylinders or in laying down the piping for the supply. Remember, even “mild” cases of COVID-19 can require a few days on oxygen support.
India Working To Avert An Oxygen Crisis During COVID-19 |, Anoo Bhuyan, India Spend
Sadly, the 2 acre land plot in Delhi allocated for burials of Covid-19 deaths is getting closer to running out of space. Maitri Porecha has more in The Hindu Business Line.
Jeffrey Gettleman, the NYTimes South Asia Bureau Chief, shares his experience on living in Delhi’s lockdown, and how India’s is the strictest in the world.
In Lockdown, Delhi Is Frozen in Fear and the Present Tense, The New York Times
Spotlight on Delhi hospitals
There has been significant reporting highlighting gaps in Covid treatment in Delhi hospitals, both private and government. Vidya Krishnan reports in the Caravan on how the prestigious private Max hospitals in both Saket and Patparganj are struggling with doctors and nurses getting infected, and potential break in safety protocols to curb the spread, by ordering healthcare workers back to work without the full 14 day quarantine.
Meanwhile Seemi Pasha shares accounts of the harrowing experience Covid positive patients have had in the isolation wards of Delhi’s government hospitals, from a lack of doctors doing rounds, to terrible sanitation conditions, and stigma against patients causing further health issues for both the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
In addition, as Ahan Penkar reports, that a Covid+ patient had to struggle to even be admitted into government hospitals (despite already having tested positive for the virus), shuffling between 3 hospitals and waiting as many as 16 hours.
U.S. and International
In the U.S. stay-at-home orders have been lifted in almost a dozen states, while experts continue caution and ask residents to continue social distancing.
Yesterday, the FDA issued emergency approvalfor remdesivir, an antiviral drug to be used more widely as a COVID-19 treatment, up until now it was being used in experimental trials. It is currently going to be used only on severely ill patients.
The coronavirus related complication being noticed in the UK has also now been spotted in the US and a few other European countries, and doctors say it is presenting as the rare Kawasaki disease.
Rare inflammatory syndrome seen in US child with Covid-19, CNN
Hong Kong and South Korea have recorded no new cases for the first time this week since a resurgence of cases.
Meanwhile, in Belgium, people are being encouraged to eat fries twice a week, as a surplus of potatoes has built up, due to restaurant closures..
Science & Graphics
There have been some fantastic data based and graphic illustrated stories explaining the scientific angles of the virus and search for a vaccine, here are a few:.
How the Coronavirus Mutates and Spreads, NYT Graphics
How Vaccines Work, Nature Magazine
How Long Will a Vaccine Really Take?, NYT Opinion
Longer Reads:
Outbreaks started in Seattle and NYC around the same time, but the crisis grew more out of control in NYC. Why? Because in Seattle, scientists took the lead while in NYC, politicians did, writes Charles Duhigg in The New Yorker
Why has everything been about this pandemic been so confusing? Ed Young explains in The Atlantic.
Side Effects of the Pandemic
We’ve been social distancing for almost two months now. In Foreign Policy, Nikita Malik had argued that extended self-isolation will lead to a rise in extremism, due to the scope for spreading misinformation and hate.
Everyone’s on a livestream or some kind of video conference these days. That includes celebrities, actors, politicians, authors. So NYTimes Books did some A-1 sleuthing and examined the bookshelves in the background of celebrities’ videos. The result is this article, read on to see what’s in Cate Blanchett, Stacey Abrams, Anna Wintour and Prince Charles’ book collections.
What Do Famous People's Bookshelves Reveal?, by Gal Beckerman
While stuck in isolation, taking virtual dance classes is a way to channel stress, learn something new, and pass the time.
Here’s a guide from CNN: Top dancers are teaching us to dance at home
A few weeks ago, Dr. Fauci, when asked, said he’d like it if Brad Pitt played him. Well, here’s Brad Pitt playing Dr. Fauci on Saturday Night Live.
Nothing to do with the Pandemic
My two favorite tributes to Bollywood actor, Irrfan Khan, who passed away this week.
Irrfan Khan Was a Gift to Cinema, Mayukh Sen, The Atlantic
Khan’s featherlight touch made the job look simple, distracting you from the fact that acting is, at its core, work. He could play the romantic lead with flushed ardor, as he did in Shoojit Sircar’s Piku (2015), but he knew how to cede the spotlight as a supporting player too. His style was free of the vanity or self-consciousness that could’ve made him seem larger than life. As his fame grew, he retained the essential quality that endeared him to viewers: a sense of relatability. Khan was an everyman who, improbably, became a star.
The Undefinable Something of Irrfan Khan, Mallika Rao, Vulture
Whereas French culture opens a space for jolie laide — welcomes it, even (witness Serge Gainsbourg, Jeanne Moreau) — Bollywood has never been so fetishistic of counterintuitive appeal. Khan may have eventually developed the reputation of being a guaranteed sign of quality (one of “three easy indicators to know whether a Bollywood film is worth your time,” as the film critic Poulomi Das recently told NPR, those being: “If the film gets good reviews, if the film’s opening weekend collections are in double figures, and if the film stars Irrfan Khan.”) But in Bollywood, he was always considered a sort of outlier to the general rule of homogenous beauty standards. He changed “the idea of what an actor needs to look like in an industry where he isn’t the traditional idea of what is handsome,” to cite a recent article that quoted Aseem Chhabra, the writer, who wrote a biography of Khan.
What My Tibetan Grandmother Taught Me About Lasting Love, by Ann Tashi Slater, Catapult Magazine. An excerpt:
I enjoyed hearing about my grandparents’ marriage and was glad they’d been so happy, but I felt sure my grandmother’s stories, her faith in marriage, had no bearing on my life plan. Seated across from me in her silk chuba and gold-and-coral jewelry, my grandmother looked like the Tibetan incarnation of Pride and Prejudice’s Mrs. Bennet, talking about girls who’d ended up “spinsters” and girls who’d almost “missed the bus.” She didn’t understand that marriage wasn’t right for everyone. I paid polite attention—“That sounds terrible!” “What a close call!”—trying not to show that as far as I was concerned, the bus could drive right on by. I never would have believed what the future held in store for me.