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As The Pandemic Scourges on - Musings In The Times Of Covid-19
Opinion | Articles | Philip Lyngdoh | 15-May-2021
Pandemic life has been tough and we all need a fresh start. Especially as Covid now posits a mortal threat not just for people beyond 45 and with co-morbidities but also for younger people.All this while many - rather most, - liked to brush away Covid as a concoction of some sinister group of fear-mongers in unholy collaboration with big Pharma Companies. Social media bristles with tales and more tales, so much so that we don't know who to believe and who not to.
There are stories of conspiracies of Megacorps colluding with governments to create the bogey of the virus in the minds of people only to induce them to buy their vaccines. The results? The Companies (and governments) get fabulously rich while the people become zombies! But whatever the stories, the situation is as grim as it gets. As the country faces the relentless onslaught of the virus, the visuals we get to see of bodies after bodies piling up in burning ghats waiting their turn at the flames are beyond heart-rending. Then we see images of bodies floating down the Holy Ganges! The government has indeed failed in its duty to protect its citizens. But what are we doing? Shouldn't we do our bit to help stem the virus' march?
In our State of Meghalaya, I saw people took scant care to observe the basic 3 rules - wearing masks, distancing, and washing hands. In public transport and public places, people routinely throw caution out of the window without thinking. If they wear masks they do so below the nose which is as good as not wearing one! I did try to speak out at times but every time my exhortations were met with disregard, shock, and even contempt! "What virus are you talking about? This is just a creation of the government! We can't afford to lose sleep over that! We have a living to earn!"
Agreed, governments are also torn between conducting business as usual to sustain people's livelihoods and preventing the disease from taking its toll. People seemed happy to get on with life. But the events that are rocking the nation since the last few weeks (and continuing) have started to shake people out of their reverie. From a nothing-can-happen-to-us attitude, the mood has transformed into one of extreme caution. We have suddenly, without being told, become more careful. For us, it was my six-year-old grandaughter who came in from her friends' house one day, excitedly announcing, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Covid has come to the gate!"
We then learnt that a neighbour's child had tested positive. Elsewhere, another neighbour and three of his family tested positive and were moved to a quarantine centre. The locality astonishingly metamorphosed into a quarantine zone by itself! No one ventured out of their homes to date. Rebecca Kharkongor is a lady I know whose two-storeyed house in Shillong's Madanrting locality is now under mini-confinement. "My younger brother tested positive a few days back", she says," He's now under treatment in Nazareth hospital."
The brother is recuperating well but in Rebecca's building, two other children have tested positive. Fear and helplessness pervade the compound. There's no knowing how many more positives will emerge as the tests continue. "How do you think your brother got the virus?" I asked. Rebecca says it was bound to happen. Madanrting is a congested area and her locality is populated with mostly Sumo and tourist vehicle drivers who keep moving from place to place everywhere all over Northeast and beyond. These folks chose to ignore every protocol. Now they are infecting everyone! Just a day ago the health workers detected five more positives from random tests.
A Mizo family from the same locality is now having both parents with Covid in NEIGHRMS hospital. Their three small children, including a four-month-old baby, are alone in the house, the older siblings taking care of the infant because the neighbours can't enter and chip in to help. As we know, the number of affected people in all Northeast states is still in five figures, barring Assam which has crossed 3 lakh. Elsewhere, the situation is grim with Maharashtra topping the list with over 52 lakh cases as of date. Even tiny Goa has crossed 1 lakh. The Northeast figures are manageable, we might say but, given the speed at which the virus can spread, we are far from secure. Besides, there is disturbing news of migrant people entering their home states giving false contact numbers or paying bribes at testing centres to obtain negative test reports, or even jumping quarantine.
As of 13th May 2021, India sees 4,000 plus Covid deaths for the third straight day. During the last 24 hours 3.43 lakh, new cases emerged. These are official figures. Unofficially the numbers are pegged at ten times higher! Uneasy news has started to trickle in Meghalaya. The virus is now spreading its tentacles even into far-flung villages. Now, the view of the people has magically turned from one of skepticism to that of nervous concern. People who once mocked vaccinations are now queuing up at jab centres. Others are scrambling to register themselves in the government’s CoWin app. Only there aren't sufficient doses for all. In India, less than 18 crores people out of 140 crores have received their jabs. They say, even with ramped-up vaccine production by both government and private manufacturers, it will take at least six months to vaccinate all eligible citizens. And the second wave hasn’t even peaked as yet.
In the meantime, we have more problems in store. The strains that are plaguing the country are multiple and that includes the B.1.617 variant that is responsible for the massive surge in infections in India, possibly spilling over to Nepal and Bangladesh. The B.1.617 variant, according to WHO, is of serious concern. It mutates around the year into something more infectious, more transmissible, and particularly cleverer at evading pre-existing immunity. And, given the reprehensible attitude of the government to hold melas and election campaigns, coupled with people’s irresponsible, even ignorant, behaviour (such as using cow dung and cow urine as cures!), is it any wonder that cases won’t continue to rise?
And how does it feel to get Covid? I asked my daughter’s friend, Vanzi, who is also 4 months pregnant. “In the first few days I didn’t know whether I lived or died,” she said. “The fever was unlike any fever, the pains were unbearable, I couldn’t breathe, I thought my lungs had given way, I had no sense of smell...till date…” She is a strong woman and escaped the worst. But she says quite a few of her colleagues weren’t so lucky and succumbed. And she wouldn’t wish for anyone to get Covid, she stressed. In Delhi, there seems to be no end to human misery. Despite government claims, says Vanzi, people had to pay more than Rs. 20,000/- for an ambulance from Faridabad to Delhi, nearly a lakh for oxygen, and several thousand for a single dose of vaccine.
While there are endless stories of covid warriors - doctors, nurses, medics, ambulance drivers, and many selfless folks - who braved all conceivable odds to reach out and help, a lot more needs to be done. The least we can do is: follow the simple preemptive means of precaution and prevention we already know - wear masks, wash hands, and keep distance. And what does Covid hold out for us Catholics? Personally, I feel God is telling us, “Look, you know I am the boss around here. There isn’t anything for you to worry about so long as you stay wary and follow the doc’s orders!” Sadly, along with many of our loved ones, quite a few of our beloved priests, brothers, and sisters have also fallen asleep in the Lord, smitten by the vile virus even as they selflessly discharge their duties in the service of God and His people
But has our spiritual life taken a beating? Not necessarily. Despite no masses and no sacraments except in times of dire necessity, the church thrives more than ever, ending up in our homes in more ways than one - the online masses, family rosary, novenas…On our part, the Holy Father reminds us, we must reach out to our communities, praying in solidarity with the universal Church. Pope Francis exhorts us to “Pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and go to the sick people to bring the strength of God's word and the Eucharist and accompany the health workers and volunteers in this work that they are doing.”
As Covid-19 rages on the whole world over (It has claimed over 3.1 million people till April 2021), should we, Catholics, be scared or scarred by it? Maybe we shouldn’t be so overwhelmed. I, for one, take refuge in Him and daily cry out, claiming His promise: “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Ps 91: 9, 10, RSV 2CE).
So together, let’s be Covid warriors in our own right!
(The Author is a retired Sr. Asst. General Manager of Air India. He can be reached on philip.lyngdoh@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal)
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