This is an original article written and edited by Dr. Anoop Prathapan
This document was written on the 7th of May 2021
Category – Healthcare/Social Responsibility
COVID-19 is a disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS CoV-2) that hit the country during the early weeks of March 2020, slumped in severity by early 2021, and struck with double the strength again by March 2021. To date, it has wiped off 5,879 human beings from the state of Kerala. 4,19,726 are on treatment in Kerala on this day. Approximately 40,000 people in the state are newly detected to be Covid positive on an average, daily, these days. The numbers are frightening and are almost eightfold of what they had been last year. Obviously, Kerala is one of the hotbeds of the pandemic in India. The second wave of the Covid-19 was more disastrous as it was found to be caused by a new mutant of the virus which turns on the inflammatory process on day one, provokes a cytokine storm by the third day, thereby ruining the lung tissues, causing an explicit requirement of medical oxygen to sustain life. A report from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, states that the current pandemic may last for at least 2-3 years and later slow down when approximately 65% of the world achieve immunity. The second wave and its brutality and the ensuing deaths have all led to such consternation amongst the commonality that they run around desperately to get themselves inoculated. What might have caused such a massive spread of the virus in its second outing? 1. I believe there is no such thing as a second outing – the virus had never gone from our surroundings – maybe it became less infective towards the start of this year – but the virus was there in the air. It was we human beings who prematurely proclaimed the pandemic, over. Even professionals in the healthcare sector had a complacency that the pandemic is all over by Jan/Feb this year.
2. Lack of prudence – The basic insight that the so-called most literate citizens of India needed to have was that the pandemic was not over. It was evident from stories from countries like Brazil that the virus can really hit you hard with more vigour on a second wave. It is only unfortunate that the most literate populace in India who boasts of the second biggest internet penetration in the country after Delhi, could not portend such a fiasco. 3. Complacency – It is a sheer complacency that emanated from the belief that the virus has dissipated that caused so much of terrible spread in this second wave leading to an average of a whopping 38,000+ average (new) detections per day. After noticing the dip in cases towards the end of last year, the country was so restless to open-up and reinstate the paused routines of a slapdash, erratic, and lax life – and that is exactly what has stung us badly. (a) People taking off facemasks had become a routine in Thiruvananthapuram since early this year. Some healthcare workers, who had their twin-jabs the earliest, were amongst the first to do so. That sent a wrong message to those down below. The State Police have registered 20,214 cases for not wearing masks and 8,132 cases for not maintaining social distancing in this so-called most-literate State and quite astonishingly we still have the nerve to call ourselves “literate”.
(b) Not maintaining social distance is everywhere – go to a grocery shop, go to a chemist, go to a bank – you find that people crowd around to get things done first for themselves and that has become their irreversible way of Keralite life. There is no queue or order anywhere, let alone social distancing. People in Kerala should have avoided unprotected crowds and gatherings of all sorts during late March and early April, for no political belief system should have been more important to them than their own health and the health of their kith and kin. (c) Psychological aspects of change in lifestyle of Keralites -
With or without the constraints of Covid-19, there are serious psychological aspects of changes in human behaviour in Kerala that need to be thoroughly, scientifically studied. People were so habituated to NOT being inside their own homes for long. Roaming around and eating from outside had become a part and parcel of their daily routines over the last few years. I feel that is the most important reason why they could not be restrained inside homes for long when the restrictions on Covid were implemented, for they had been so habituated with that way of life. The clinical psychologists or social scientists reading this article may please work on this pernicious social attitude, more. Quite strikingly, even amidst this lachrymose pandemic, I could witness so many children being brought to the only Mall in Thiruvananthapuram for a ride or two in the Children’s Play Zone because the children are getting “bored” at home or for an eat-out in the Food Court because their parents do not have the patience to cook food at home for them. I sincerely wish that such ridiculously irresponsible parents be booked by child protection laws for neglect. Considering all these, I feel that the people in Kerala are still living miles away from the semi-dystopian reality that they are in. (d) Marriages conducted with a “pre-covid” number of people – I have heard news from various sources that there are people who entice the authorities to close their eyes so that they can conduct marriages and functions with more people than the law allows. In Kerala, it has been decided by the State that not more than 20 can attend a marriage function and that no food can be served at the function. Knowing the classic irreverent and truculent Malayali attitude, I am sure none of the Keralites might take this up 100%. There were a few documented instances of people who did override this mandate and conduct flamboyant functions – as I could understand from some unabashed WhatsApp statuses. (e) Opening of Movie halls, gymnasium, clubs, pools, resorts – This was the most detrimental move by the State if I am asked, especially considering the hyperactive, attention-deficit, impetuous, indiscreet populace in Kerala. It is quite understandable from the point of view of a democratic government that it must yield to the needs of the different sections of the society, as is required. Even if the Government had to do so, for explainable and unavoidable reasons, isn’t it our obligation to shield our own health? We stay away from such activities to avoid (ourselves) getting sick or just (only) because the Government insists so?
I am stunned by the irrationality of the internet savvy people here that, amidst the pandemic, amidst people dying, amidst people struggling to get hospital beds, amidst reports that the virus is most infective in closed air-conditioned rooms, one of the cinemas near me was teeming like pre-covid times, when a very average Tamil feature film was released there on January 10 this year. There were people who cut cakes in front of that cinema in Thiruvananthapuram and posted those on Facebook, to (apparently) honour the hero whom they were seeing on screen after a year…!!! Can a generation, who proclaim to be so literate otherwise, stoop even more low? Nowhere else in the world can you see a prudent, enlightened civilization genuflecting before movie billboards…!!! Similar was the scenario when two movies of a Malayalam “superstar” actor were released back-to-back in cinemas, days after. The film had such swarms that the theatre owners visited the superstar actor at his residence and thanked him for his “benevolence” in getting those films released in theatres. The civic-sense and moral responsibility of such an actor, whom the country honoured with a Padmasree in 1998, is something extremely abominable in this context. In my judgment, his decision to compulsorily release those movies in theatres amidst the pandemic was utterly unbecoming of a Padmasree awardee, who should be more responsible to the State.
As I alluded to in the case of marriages, I have noted over the last eight years that Kerala is a state where, despite the overdramatised literacy on paper, as long as there are people who invite the public to such unsafe activities and as long as there are other unsolicited opportunities, there are aplenty (including even highly educated doctors and other professionals) waiting desperately to break the laws and all Covid mandates to satisfy paltry impulsive temptations. I would list going to a cinema and an air-conditioned shopping mall, the first among these that should never be done, irrespective of whatever safety measures they implement, for these two are never a primary requisite for our lives in these times of the pandemic.
So, to cut the long story short, it is the complacency and the capricious behaviour of the people in the State that has led to such massive super-spread of the virus over the last four weeks. There is a limit to what the State can enforce. There is a limit to what the policemen can do to restrict. Ultimately it is your own health. You should be the one making decisions for yourself. Your health and your safety are primarily YOUR responsibility. Please stay away from malls, movie halls, restaurant dine-ins, resort stays and all unnecessary travel for at least one more year from now. This is one of the biggest opportunities in our lives where the ever-emphasized, over-glorified Malayali literacy and the ensuing sensibility should outshine impulsiveness.
When such a self-motivated approach does not seem to unfold in the ordinary citizen, the Government should enforce Covid-19 restrictions with fines that are sizable for the offenders– and not just worth a few loose coins off their pockets. If the economy which is already in the doldrums does not allow another complete lockdown for an extended period, the law-enforcement agencies should be given all authority to make sure by any means that the Covid protocols are being strictly adhered to. There should be no mercy of any sort allowed in following Covid protocols especially at marriages or any other venue of celebration, for those are the two occasions where Keralites tend to neglect their milieux. The State should not allow religious festivals of any kind that has the potential to attract public congregations. On top of all, the State should restrain all opportunities for gatherings related to entertainment (including not opening movie halls) in the state for another full year. It is high time, the State realizes that the wayward, hyperactive populace In Kerala, can never be contained by loose edicts. Such strict restrains if effected without dilutions can aid in controlling the spread of the dreaded virus within the State to a prodigious extent, at least from now on.
Dr. Anoop Prathapan
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The author is a medical doctor in the Kerala State Government Health Services
The author is a native of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, a reader, writer, and a big-time movie buff who always preferred to watch movies (multiple times) in theatres, attend invited marriages and participate actively in other invited functions, before Covid.
thank you so much Ms. Jean. I am glad you liked it. I would be honored if you could circulate this article as much as you can, in your circle, so that it reaches maximum people.....!!!
Well said Dr. Anoop. I agree to all the points mentioned. Most of us had started to take things lightly...