India lost the battle with Coronavirus, now must prepare for War

India did not prepare for Coronavirus crisis in January, February and early March. As a result, India paid the price as Coronavirus will likely become an epidemic in India. India did not implement initial containment strategy - Large scale testing and aggressive quarantine measures in early days. India did not prepare for building a stockpile of Testing kits, N95 Masks, PPEs, Ventilators and other medical supplies.  Lockdown was unplanned and unprepared exercise by Modi. As i explained in earlier articles, India has very different socioeconomic conditions and population dynamics compared to western world & developed countries, so "flattening of curve" measures won't be much effective in India. Even otherwise, the lockdown only makes sense when you can identify the infected people and separate them from rest of the population. But without large scale testing, India is flying blind or sleepwalking in this crisis. You cannot fight your enemy which you can't see it. South Korea declared war against Coronavirus and immediately started large scale testing and quarantine measures - within few weeks, South Korea was on top of the situation as Coronavirus cases collapsed drastically.


Lockdown was a face saver and PR management exercise by the Govt to give an appearance that its doing something in response to crisis. The State Govt, Chief Ministers and experts were never consulted about the Lockdown. Thali Bajao, Mombatti jalao were some of the PR stunts promoted by Modi Govt without any purpose but were actually destructive exercises. Ignorant people celebrated Thali Bajao in community ceremony style completely undermining the idea of social distancing and Candle light exercise will put India's National electricity grid at risk.


Now India must prepare for a war with Coronavirus. Coronavirus isn't going away anywhere. Its going to spread in cities, towns and villages. So a new approach is needed to fight this epidemic on LONG TERM basis. The War with Coronavirus will end with a vaccine which is presently in development/testing/clinical trial phases. Having failed in initial containment strategy, India may now pay a terrible price in terms of human costs and economic losses. Now Govt should start planning and preparing for all of that.


Also India has to accept many BRUTAL and uncomfortable realities. Starting with most basic reality, we don't have a cure or vaccine for Coronavirus and there may not be a cure this year. Another reality to understand is that vast majority of Indian people don't have the luxury of income security, job security, food security, shelter and savings. A large part of population are in poverty and live hand to mouth. So all these privileges of Social Distancing as practiced in developed nations are not a practical idea for most Indians. Coronavirus if spread to a large population as predicted by epidemiologists and other experts will impose a heavy toll on this country. Many people will die, there will be an economic depression, there will be social chaos, anarchy and riots. India has to balance between preventing disease transmission and preventing social chaos. Mindlessly shutting down country without remedial economic measures will cause riots and anarchy in country where majority of population don't have food security, income security and shelter. All these are possibilities and eventualities that Govt must now be prepared for.


The fight against Coronavirus will be a long one and we must adjust and align our healthcare system, economy, Government functioning and social affairs according to needs of the time. India has had a history of a long struggle with Dengue malaria, Cholera, Tuberculosis, Polio and other diseases. Now Coronavirus is added to the list of our long term healthcare challenges.


War against Coronavirus will be won only with full vaccination and complete antibody testing of our population. This will be a long marathon unlike short sprints of few days lockdown.