All these discussions around WHO’s fallacious reports that claimed nearly 47 lakh Indians died because of Corona bought back many memories from the dreaded phase of April-May-June of 2021.

While the indications of a second wave started in early March in 2021, it was only towards the end of March that we were coming to know about the severity of this variant of the virus. We first started hearing dreadful stories from Maharashtra – about the shortage of Remdesivir; about the shortage of beds; and about the fast rate of increasing cases. The scam involving hoarding of Remedisivir should have alerted us but somehow many of us just figured that this is restricted to Maharashtra and will not impact the rest of the country as severely.

The severity of the situation was first understood when Delhi started reporting, in the first two weeks of April, that the shortage of beds is leading to a shortage of Oxygen availability to those who desperately need it. And therefore, we started to hear horror stories of people dying at their homes because of shortage of hospital beds. The numbers then started increasing across the country at a very fast rate, and the same horror stories we heard from Maharashtra and Delhi were coming in from many parts of the country. And soon these horror stories started becoming personal too – there was practically no home left in the country that was not impacted.

During this harrowing time, I was also making daily hospital visits in the city of Visakhapatnam (Vizag). Vizag has this concept of Health city – so we have this large area which has 10s of Hospitals, big and small. As the crisis was increasing, most hospitals were getting converted into COVID hospitals. I saw 10s of anxious relatives bringing in patients with shortness of breaths; 10s of anxious relatives making frantic calls to get hold of Remdesivir, Tocilizumab etc.; 10s of relatives hopping from hospital to hospital searching for a bed. I saw nurses and other health care workers walk into that ICU every single day knowing very well that they may end up there one day too. I saw desperate relatives just waiting outside the hospital for any update that they may receive from the doctor. I heard from others how the acute shortage of staff in some ICUs meant that family members themselves tended to their loved ones.

Our country never faced a situation where Oxygen was required at such high quantity right in our homes too. Faced with such a situation, many of us had to fall back on those who were supplying Oxygen at exorbitantly high rates. I also had to make trips to plants that were producing medical oxygen. And I did see that the governments were really making an outstanding effort to produce this oxygen – literally the only Oxygen that was going out from even commercial plants was just medical oxygen. However, the availability of Oxygen also meant heavy black marketing of the same too. We all had to pay exorbitant amounts to get hold of cylinders, but the process to refill them was sorted out pretty soon.

And then when I also went to the crematorium (twice that too), I cannot even begin to explain what I saw and felt. Even while we were grieving, it was most devasting to see families bringing in their young ones for cremation. Some loved ones were bought in the black bags and bodies were not allowed to be taken out. No words will ever be enough to express that intense personal moment of grief. And that is also why it was very difficult for me to fathom why sections of the English media made hay out of this misery.

While I saw the best of humanity, I also saw the worst of humanity during this time. Hospital managements competed head over heels with each other to make money out of this misery. The hoarding and black marketing of medicines; the black marketing of Oxygen cylinders; and the hoarding of Oxygen cylinders was simply unfathomable to me.

We cannot but wonder if many of these lives could have been saved. We cannot but wonder if we could have done something more; cannot but wonder if we could have made more calls; used more influence; been more careful; used social media more; shifted hospitals; arranged for better treatment and what not. Families were put in some impossible situations and faced untold tragedies they would not have imagined a month ago.

We are now left with no option but to move on and honour the memories of the loved ones we lost. We cannot honour these memories if governments announce that no one died due to lack of Oxygen; if governments put strict conditions on what death can be classified as a COVID death and what is not; if the hospitals that looted people are let off scot-free; and if international organisations seek to exaggerate numbers through unscientific reports. Empathetic communication and compensation will go a long way in helping people cope up with their losses.  

I do not believe 47 lakh people died as WHO claims. Neither do I believe 4.7 lakh died as our state governments and Union Territories claim. I believe the number will be 2 to 3 times more than this claim.  This is the time to help heal the wounds, not rekindle them.

Image source: News Medical