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Rate of increase of COVID Cases and the myth of Tablighi Jamaat involvement
It was alleged by number of media houses quoting Health Ministry that Covid-19 cases in India doubled @ of 4.1 days whereas had the TJ incident not have happened it would have taken 7.4 days
Rate of increase of COVID Cases and the myth of Tablighi Jamaat involvement
It was alleged by number of media houses quoting Health Ministry that Covid-19 cases in India doubled @ of 4.1 days whereas had the TJ incident not have happened it would have taken 7.4 days
Media houses like @IndiaToday @livemint @news18dotcom @ZeeNewsEnglish and many more printed number of articles without seeking any details from the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs
We logged an RTI on 5th April 2020 with the Department of Health and Family Welfare seeking the below details
1. Name, designation and the credentials of the author of this report within health ministry
1. Name, designation and the credentials of the author of this report within health ministry
2. A copy of the research / report based on which health ministry deduced that Covid cases are doubling in 4.1 days presently and had Tablighi Jamaat incident would not have happened rate of cases doubling would be 7.4 days
On 8th April 2020 Department of Health and Family Welfare transferred the RTI to the below departments:
•Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)
•Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
•NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL, DELHI (NCDC)
•Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)
•Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
•NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL, DELHI (NCDC)
NCDC on 12th May 2020 confirmed that the information sought above does not pertain to its office. On 13th May 2020 DGHS in turn transferred the RTI that was forwarded to the department by MoHFW to NCDC.
NCDC again confirmed on 20th May 2020 that the details sought does not pertain to its office.
As there was no response from ICMR a first appeal was logged on 19th May 2020 requesting guidance to the PIO to share the details sought.
As there was no response from ICMR a first appeal was logged on 19th May 2020 requesting guidance to the PIO to share the details sought.
After months of delay we got a response from ICMR on 10th Aug 2020 confirming that the details sought were not available with them and we should seek the above details from MoHFW who on the first instance passed this RTI to ICMR and other departments.
It is becoming quite evident that no such data exists with any department of MoHFW. This is further proven by a research conducted by Aravindhan Nagarajan who mathematically deduced that India was never close to 7-Day doubling rate.
Aravindhan's model proves using government data that with the TJ fiasco the doubling rate was 4.31 days and without it happening it would have been 4.81 days.
A 2nd level appeal has been logged with CIC India to enable us get the details if they exist and the thread will be updated once we get a response.
