It’s time for all of us to come together and fight the pandemic selflessly

It was towards the end of 2019 that the unknown disaster struck the globe in the form of Covid-19 and since then researchers and scientists have been burning midnight oil to find out how and where it started and how it spread. An answer eludes us even today. The pandemic created havoc around the world, the damages to industry and economies are still being assessed, the world has taken a hit and many countries are still trying to recover from the shock. Now, the second wave has hit the world community with a vengeance and the havoc it has created is worse than the first wave. It is upto the scientific community to quickly analyse how long the present wave will last.  During the first wave, thanks to technology, it did not take long for mankind to shift to alternate means of survival and sustain business operations. The education system promptly went into the online mode that has now become the primary mode of teaching. It didn't take long to start virtual laboratory sessions and even the examinations were held online so as to recoup lost offline sessions and save an academic year. Work from home became the name of the office game, allowing people to run offices and businesses through virtual workshops, seminars and conferences without having to travel at all.  Shopping has more or less become an online phenomenon to avoid visits to crowded markets, food too is ordered online like never before and sensing the demand for delivered food, entrepreneurs have expanded the cuisines and culinary fare available for the consumers. 

There has been a decline in some businesses in the organised and unorganised sectors,  but then many new entrepreneurs have also sprung up ushering in new a wave of innovative ideas. Products such as PPEs, masks and ventilators and many more are being made and subjected to innovations, while those never manufactured in the country are being exported in under a year.  The innovations and new systems, however, eluded the country's medical care apparatus with the health workers struggling to cope up with the pandemic and trying to put their best foot forward to ensure it contained as quickly as possible and ensuring that people respect safety norms and wear masks, maintain social distancing and wash their hands regularly.

The public healthcare system is bursting at the seams and politicising has only made it worse. This is something to be guarded guard against lest it demoralise the nation. Humanitarian aid is coming from various quarters, including from religious communities, offering volunteer services to provide free food at ‘langars’, free oxygen supplies and even beds in urgently erected centres. There are also disturbing scenes of over-burdened front line health workers overwhelmed by the scale of the surge.  Equally disturbing are reports of black marketing of essential drugs and oxygen, fake admissions, fake medicine and medical equipment. All this adds up to a bizarre situation where the conscience of those indulging in these practices seems to have died. The need of the hour is for everyone to come together keeping politics at bay and fight the pandemic selflessly. Life, not money, is valuable as it will never come back. There is also the need to have a positive mind, it is no small achievement that despite a massive increase in positive cases, the recoveries are also in big numbers.

(The author is Group Pro Vice-Chancellor, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh. The views expressed are personal.)