Now that COVID will stay with us next year as well, how do we manage the virus?    

The Foreign Hand

Our generation was largely sceptical when the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spoke of the ‘foreign hand’ trying to destabilise the country. We now know better. If our country is not to be completely isolated and insulated, foreign hands will be there to influence us, exploit us and also to weaken us, if that serves their purpose. We expect our Government to be alive to the threat and protect us. But they cannot do so by proclaiming from the roof top that there is an international conspiracy. Uttar Pradesh Government, if it is convinced there is one at play to discredit it over the Hathras gangrape, must identify the foreign hand rather than launch a witch hunt against political rivals. It is like crying wolf. When the real foreign hand or hands commit mischief, we will be taken unaware.

One good effect of Yogi Adityanath’s conspiracy theory is that it has made us aware of the possibility of international conspiracies in defence purchases like Rafale, in our elections, in our Government and Parliament as well as on our borders. Who knows? Even Sushant Singh Rajput might have committed suicide because of an international conspiracy?

Razia Akhtar

Managing COVID in 2021

With most experts in agreement that the coronavirus is unpredictable and is going to stay with us for the next 12 to 18 months, we need to work out a long-term arrangement to deal with it. Unfortunately, the Governments in India, both at the Centre and in the states, have in the short run created such confusion and mismanagement that it is difficult to have confidence in their ability to manage the pandemic over a longer period.

Luckily, both medical person nel and people have got over their initial panic and confusion. Some kind of uniform protocol now appears to be in place. But there is no sign that the Governments have seized the opportunity to overhaul the public health system. It is still the business as usual.

The Union Health Minister has outlined the strategy to distribute anti-COVID vaccines as and when they arrive. Media reports suggest that more than one vaccine will be approved by early next year. That managing the vaccine and prioritizing its distribution is not simple has been underscored by several experts. It is instructive to remind ourselves of what they have said.

• Distribution of the vaccine must have a clear goal, they have said. If the objective is to prevent the spread of the disease then the vulnerable sections should get the vaccine first. On the other hand, if the objective is to prevent the transmission, younger and active people must be given priority.

• In hospitals, the ward boys and nurses could be spending many more hours with patients than doctors. Either all of them or the para-medics must therefore receive priority; and that it is not enough to say that healthcare workers would get it first.

• Despite the guidelines, it is of course safe to assume that politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and police officers will be the first to be vaccinated. This country clearly works for them.

Dr Sandip Satpathy

Worse than Nepal

The life expectancy of an Indian at birth has improved by a mere 0.4 years in the last decade, according to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) data by the Census and Registrar General’s office, although at 69.4 years in 2014-18, it is a world away from the life expectancy of 49.7 in 1970-75. There is a marked variation among states — and gender. The average rural male in Chhattisgarh will live less than 63 years while the average urban female in Himachal Pradesh can hope to make it to nearly 81, a difference of 18 years. In Uttar Pradesh, with the second-highest infant mortality rate of 43, life expectancy jumps by 4.4 years on completion of the first year.

India doesn’t fare well compared to its Asian peers. Japan is at the top among large nations, with a life expectancy of 84.5 and had reached India’s current state in 1960. In China, it is 76.7 years; it had reached India’s current state in 1990. Sadly, even Bangladesh (721.1) and Nepal (70.5) fare better than India, as per the UN Human Development Report, 2019.

Mallika Dhawan