“Another spectacular failure of the administration has been not to heed its own disease models. As far back as late February, we knew that the virus was spreading in the country (R >1). No public health measures were instituted despite such a clear signal” (1/n)

“on the contrary, public health interventions like mask-wearing and social distancing were thrown to the winds in the interest of appeasement to the religious base, and to perverse political objectives”. (2/n)

“The second important public health strategy during a pandemic, and one that has been repeated ad nauseam, is the importance of public health messaging by the political leadership…This is perhaps the single most important component of a failed public health strategy.” (3/n)

“Mass gatherings at cricketing stadiums, political rallies and religious events organised by the government sent out a loud message to the common man that he need not worry about the pandemic anymore.” (4/n)

“The third issue pertains to the appalling lack of policies in place to deal with a surge in infections. The standard response in scenarios where the health system is expected to be overwhelmed, based on the projections of disease models, is to create a triaging system” (5/n)

“Some cities, Mumbai, Chennai appear to have installed a fairly effective triage system & the results are visible. You don’t see heartbreaking images from Mumbai as often as you see them from Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow etc. Why then did Delhi and cities in UP fail so miserably” (6/n)

“The fourth issue pertains to the equally heartbreaking issue of relatives of patients begging for medicines like Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Itolizumab and blood plasma.” (7/n)

“The fifth and the last catastrophic policy decision that has led to this chaotic second wave was the inability of the central government to put in place a coherent vaccine procurement policy.” (8/n)

“As of today, even after all these deaths and pain, not a single member of the Indian government has expressed remorse, or apologized or resigned.
That is perhaps the surest guarantee that we live in an ‘electoral autocracy’.”(9/n)