Headless chicken

Monday 26th April, 2021

The government is now fully awake, having let the grass grow under its clumsy feet, and running around like a headless chicken in a bid to contain the pandemic, which is spreading fast. The new variant of coronavirus is far more transmissible and dangerous than the one that troubled us previously, according to medical experts. Hospitals are already full, and another wave of infections is likely to destroy many lives.

The government is urging the public to follow the Covid-19 protocol strictly. True, the ordinary people lowered their guard, inviting trouble, and they must act responsibly at least now, but the fact remains that the government should have ensured the proper enforcement of the health regulations and increased the number of random PCR tests during the last several months. Instead, it insisted that the community spread of the pandemic had not begun and gave the public a false sense of security.

Last year, election campaigns were mainly responsible for the second wave of infections, and this year, it was the Sinhala and Tamil New Year that triggered the current wave, which is like a tsunami about to make landfall. The government played politics with the health regulations. Having got exposed for various rackets including the fraudulent duty exemptions for sugar imports, and the destruction of forests, it did not dare resort to travel restrictions during the New Year season lest its popularity should plummet further.

Lockdowns must be the last resort, given the massive economic and social costs they entail. But there are other measures that may help the country face the third wave of Covid-19 effectively. Work places should be given incentives to encourage work from home. Aggressive PCR testing should be carried out. Health regulations must be strictly enforced and transgressions severely dealt with. Other countries have already adopted double masking. The government should also think how advisable it is to keep schools open while postponing the reopening of universities. The Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians has called for closing schools temporarily in view of the worsening national health crisis. Above all, the task of battling the elusive virus must be left to experts, who should have the freedom to carry out their duties and functions scientifically, free from political interference.

It is high time preparations were made for erecting respiratory triage tents near hospitals and expanding the ICU facilities urgently while the oxygen supply is increased. Tomorrow may be too late.

Jets and oxygen

The recent induction of India’s Rafale fighter jets and the subsequent test-firing of Hammer air-to-ground modular weapons have given an impetus to the arms race in the region, according to a report we publish today. China and Pakistan are expected to try to match India’s newly acquired air power capability, we are told. India is reported to have ordered 36 French-made Rafale fighter aircraft at a cost of 7.87 billion Euros, and already taken delivery of about a dozen of them. Increases in defence budgets are always at the expense of a state’s social spending.

While flaunting its newly inducted Rafale jets, India has got badly beaten by a virus, which has demonstrated its ability to be airborne; the Indian health authorities are battling to keep hospitals, across the country, supplied with oxygen to save lives amidst a resurgence of Covid-19. There have been more than 17 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, which has snuffed out about 192,000 lives in India. The healthcare system is overwhelmed and the death toll is rising rapidly. People are collapsing on roads. It is doubtful whether the Indian public is boasting of Rafale jets any longer; everyone is now asking for a steady oxygen supply to hospitals and more critical care facilities.

On the political front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have thought his popularity ratings would skyrocket due to the newly unveiled air power capability, but his government’s failure to contain the pandemic has brought them down drastically so much so that he is at the receiving end of a hostile social media campaign. Many people are asking him to resign. His party’s massive election rallies which became super-spreader events have also taken their toll on the popularity of the BJP government.

India serves as an example of the price the world is paying for having had its expenditure priorities mixed up. Huge defence budgets of countries, big or small, have adversely impacted global health. Not even the US, the most powerful economy, has invested adequately in its health sector if the difficulties it is experiencing in handling the pandemic situation are any indication. It has had to use freezer trucks to store the corpses of Covid-19 patients as hospital mortuaries are chock-a-block. So much for its super-power status!

Of what use are a country’s military might and economic prowess if its citizens cannot be protected against a viral infection?