As we enter May of 2021, much of the world is finally putting an end to the struggle against COVID-19. Vaccines are being distributed in mass, nations are opening up, and some are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. However, This brings attention to nations who are only experiencing the beginning of it, such as India. What is happening in India currently regarding COVID-19? One of the most populated countries in the world is facing an unprecedented wave of COVID issues that have crashed onto their shores. Why is this happening, and what can be done to help?
Currently, India is in the midst of a brutal second wave of COVID-19. According to CNN, the country has recorded 8.3 million new cases in the past 30 days, with a single-day record of 412,262. Deaths have also been at a constant rate, with a 9 day streak of over 3,000 deaths a day, contributing to the roughly 230,000 throughout COVID’s lifetime in the country. Another variant has also been traced within INdia, which has a higher transmissibility, but is shown to be not more lethal than the original strain. To combat this, India’s ruling party (The Bharatiya Janata Party) will enforce another strict lockdown, now extended until May 15th. India is also treating coronavirus cases in over 300 hospitals across the country, and administering vaccines to everyone 18 and older.
India’s second wave can likely be traced to the mass opening of India occurring in early January. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a strict lockdown back in March of 2020, and thinking as though they’ve been victorious over the pandemic, Modi declared this victory and many went away with safety precautions such as mask wearing and social distancing. This, along with the Kumbh Mela Hindu Festival in April and campaign rallies for the Prime Minister, contributed most to this initially ignored second wave. However, this is also due to the struggle between India’s government and efforts for vaccinations. Not only was India’s government exporting millions of doses earlier in the year, but the price of vaccine distribution and manufacturing has been a large issue in third world countries. It seems incredibly easy for wealthy, typically western countries to pay for and distribute all these vaccines. However, places like India and the Middle East are forced to pay huge sums of money from big pharmaceutical companies to help its people.
The struggle is quickly shifting however. In a historic move, the Biden Administration announced on Wednesday that it plans to support waiving patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines, which would significantly help boost supplies around the world. Despite backlash from supporters of intellectual property as well as the pharmaceutical industry, the move could greatly support the development and distribution of vaccines for many countries struggling, especially India. Removing patents could allow for the transfer of knowledge to create the vaccine from local distributors, manufacturing and distributing variants of the vaccine available to the corresponding countries. Despite a struggle between corporations and governments, removing patents for the COVID vaccine would help save huge amounts of lives in India.
As we as Americans now finally look to be rounding the curve, we need to start looking to help others to round it too. Supporting India through their second wave is detrimental to the overall health of the world, and would provide a framework of global humanitarianism for years to come. For more information on how you can help India with supplies and more, visit the link below for several resources.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-to-help-india-during-its-covid-surge-12-places-you-can-donate