Nothing makes sense anymore. Who should you believe and why?
Apparently, there is no contagion in Assam, W Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala. There is no contagion on Singhu and Tikri border. There is no pandemic in the Maha Kumbh. And everyone, their uncle, and their dog is in Goa, which too seems to be surprisingly healthy.
Also, this strain of the virus seems to be more/less mild/dangerous depending on who you are speaking to and what specific data you are referring to. People are suddenly dying/not dying more than the previous ‘wave’. This is the prolonged first/second/third wave. The vaccinated are more/less prone to getting infected. Surfaces spread/do not spread this virus. Sanitising and handwashing helps/does not matter. Masks are essential inside your car (even if you are the only one in it) but 50 million half-naked, gullible, idiots jostling for space on the banks of the polluted Ganges in Hardwar are about herd immunity and ‘faith’, whatever that means. A 6-feet distance helps, but the virus also stays in the air for upto 3 days and travels upto 20 feet once ejected from the carrier’s body. Lockdown is the only option/not on the table.
At the same time, medicines are suddenly gone off shelves, beds are all full up with people I know personally not being able to find a single one, numbers are rising in random states for no discernable reason, and even as we ship millions of vaccines to other countries, vaccines for domestic use are suddenly not available because Serum Institute needs half a billion dollars to ‘upgrade’ in order to fulfill the nation’s needs (did they only recently realise what the Indian population is?).
#WTAF? I thought 2021 was supposed to be less confusing than 2020 when we encountered this virus named after 2019, since now we have vaccines and we have cracked the genetic code of this parasite. But the more time passes, the more everyone, from the WHO to superpowers to the local doctor is treating it as if this is the weather, changing from day to day, sometimes by the hour!
I have stayed home almost most of last year, I wear a bloody mask everywhere, I sanitise and wash my hands all the time, I stay away from crowds (as much as I can), I have taken the first dose of the vaccine, I listen to the administration’s calls for lockdowns and sundry curfews. But nobody, least of all those who pretend to be in charge, knows anything about this, right? Because it sure seems like that.
