Tag: SARS CoV2

A dubious distinction

The US has reached a dubious distinction of being a global leader in having 4 million cases of Coronavirus. What leads to this grim scenario? Often, outsiders wonder what is causing this vulnerability. I shared a different perspective on the factors contributing to this grim scenario. In my opinion, there are several factors that contribute to these dismal figures. Understanding the failure is as important as understanding the success, it is through failures that we get a glimpse of success as it offers us an understanding of modeling success and our collective behavior. In this article, I have made attempts to capture aspects across major democracies that offer an insight into success and failure.

The US – then 4 million coronavirus cases. The US is the global leader in Covid-19 cases, followed by Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. The statistics run like this –

99 days to reach 1 million
43 days to reach 2 million
28 days to reach 3 million
15 days to reach 4 million
… days to reach 5 million

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data?country=USA~BRA~IND~RUS~GBR~OWID_WRL

A global leader again (pun intended), how could a country reach such epic proportions of the disease in just 180 days. At least 143,820 people have died across the country. Where is the indiscretion? Is it that the population is vulnerable? Or are we following flawed models of prevention?

Let me cite an example – my HOA asked me to fix the turf, stating it is an essential service. Of course, I responded saying why it is not but this is a reflection of a flawed model being followed.

A confusion between essential and non-essential is the major factor. Another aspect that is scientific activism by gullible people called ‘Corona Mixer’. It is akin to a flawed model of Herd Immunity followed in the UK, Sweden, and few other countries, where COVID-19 eventually exploded.

Third, fatigue from indoor has wrongly motivated several families to stride outside. Of course, a gullible common man cannot see the 54 million viruses that were just sprayed by an unexpected asymptomatic person in the vicinity that followed that infects other innocent bystanders as it drifts along the path of air currents.

There are more factors to the proliferation of the disease. Another complex issue is Political liberalism and assertion for a cause. Subversion or a feeling of being subverted is causing people to rebel and aggregate. Incorrect policies and guidance by WHO and other policy-making bodies is another contributing aspect factor.

Policies – a bedrock for containment: Policies offer a solid fabric for control and on the converse is equally true that not having consistent machinery to execute policies is an equal deterrent. I will shy to quote an example from a major city from central India where a breakdown of communication amongst the policy executioners resulted in a flare-up of COVID across the town. Remember, if only the infected (symptomatic and asymptomatic) can strictly isolate, we can contain the virus.

Indore a success story

We have several success stories from around the globe but visit CovidRxExchange to learn about, Indore – A Success Story. You will see how a metropolitan city controlled the disease at the outset with a well-executed policy and a diligent team of doctors.

Can we change this? Possibly that’s the Midas touch that would delay and possibly deter further infection.

Shashank Heda, MD
Dallas, Texas

References:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data?country=USA~BRA~IND~RUS~GBR~OWID_WRL

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/publication/32691016