I spoke with a friend in India & their experience on the ground is harrowing. Ordinary people spending their entire days trying to help people find available hospital beds, medications, and oxygen tanks. Many folks have paused day jobs to assist in this process.

Their stories align with the horrific videos we’re seeing. People dying on the pavement. Hospitals overwhelmed so they’re triaging on the street, in parking lots. A black market for medications with price gouging rampant. Mass cremations.

During our convo, they emphasized the role of the central government in creating this crisis. Yes, I’m saying creating. Encouraging super spreader events to take place & organizing election rallies, not investing in health infrastructure, not having a strategic plan— created.

Although state and local governments are now trying their best, particularly in Maharashtra where my friend currently lives, they need resources and support from the central government— our supreme leader as usual is spewing empty platitudes with no actual solutions.

This wasn’t an inevitable crisis for a “resource-poor” country, this is negligence, this is a disregard for science, this is apathy for people’s lives, this is the Modi government’s failure to care about its citizens past its Hindutva agenda & vote garnering. Remember that.

If you’d like to donate you can refer to this thread— it is tailored to people outside of India so hopefully the websites accept foreign credit cards. I haven’t personally verified each org FYI https://twitter.com/lavanyadj/status/1385228161168850954