Tweet thread warning - what I am going to say here iscould found radical veering towards insensitive in the current scenario. If you do I can only say sorry but will not change my views.

A lot is being said about the efficacy of the lockdown and flattening the curve. It has certainly worked. The moving avg in daily growth is coming down in steps. We are not there but inching close

However the government and most popular media would like you to believe that you are buying yourself time if you continue for a lockdown even after 3rd May. There will be various reasons given for the same

However most people forget that unless you are over 65 or with serious co-morbidies like Diabetes/Kidney/Lever/Heart/Hypertension issues, you are buying your health system the time to ramp up itself. Thats the entire deal with flattening the curve

Most Indians are therefore not buying themselves time rather than the govt and bureucracy the time. Enough time has been bought however and we expect that the 40 days till 3rd May would and should have been used to ramp up the infrastructure to deal with growth in no of cases.

To put things in perspective India went for the most strict nationwide lockdown with 886 cases. While US went for partial across some states with 85435 cases. The other perspective is that 94.5% of India is below 65 & 70% is below 30 making it one of the youngest in the world

This virus is not going anywhere. Indians are being made to believe that it will somehow disappear if you stay in a lockdown for more days. The fact is that the virus is here to stay. So unless there is a vaccine, cure or herd immunity you are essentially on your own

Thus its critical to restart the economy after 3rd May. One will have to be used to wearing masks, using sanitizers in public places, washing hands many times a day and continue social distancing for a good time to come. Expect that time to be lasting for 6 or even more months.

One would also - as a society and within communities -have to keep an extra eye on seniors and people with comorbities for some time. Naturally we cant keep the economy shut till that long. Already the consequences are going to be drastic. Any longer will be spelling doom.

Moreover any increased lockdown will not yield any significant incremental benefits. This is illustrated from the figure below. As you see the incremental gains have started flattening after 18-19 April.

So stop fretting over daily spike in numbers. With each day even if the curve is flattening that spike will be higher than the previous day for some time to come. Get used to it.

Trust your health public system - which although may not be as plush as the west, has far higher experience in dealing with public health issues for 70+ years. Remember we have had one of the most successful smallpox/polio campaigns in the history of mankind.

Trust your docs and health professionals. They are the largest pool in the world. Most have been trained in over crowded public hospitals with little bureucratic support. Of course get them their PPEs/Masks/Insurance etc. that they deserve

Spend more time in exercising and taking care of health and avoidable issues like diabetes/Hypertension. If they are not in control, now is the time for discipline

But move on. End the lockdown and get back to work. There is little economic help coming from anywhere but yourself. We have to get back to work NOW.

#getonwithlife

@PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @drharshvardhan @hchawlah @alokmittal001 @jalajboy @ShekharGupta @sardesairajdeep