India's health system is collapsing

The last time we were in Singapore we took a day tour of the whole island. It turned out that Hubby and I were the only customers that day so we had the driver and the tour guide to ourselves and could ask any questions we wanted to. As we passed numerous military establishments the conversation turned to the Japanese occupation during WW II.

I learned that at that time Singapore depended on Malaya for its water supply, which was cut off, causing great hardship for the Singaporeans at the time. In the post war period this problem was addressed and they are now self sufficient with regard to fresh water. They are also defence ready because relying on a foreign power, Great Britain, did not protect them in 1942. They have designed their expressways to be instantly convertible to airstrips because they use large pot plants as temporary median strips.

You may be wondering what this has to do with dealing with a pandemic. We should be learning important lessons from COVID 19 because it will surely not be the last pandemic that must be faced in the 21st century. We must plan for the next one so that we are not caught unprepared without a plan and without resources as we were for COVID 19.

India is in so much trouble because the population behaved like ostriches with their heads in the sand. They did not listen to the government when called on to modify their behaviour. The government was not prepared for the huge numbers of infected people and the number of corpses that would need to be quickly cremated. They had a full year to think about how much oxygen and equipment they would need for the worst case scenario but still they were taken by surprise.

In Australia we are finding out about the problems with quarantining people in city hotels yet there are no plans in place to develop a better system for future use. We have a number of unused air force bases, away from the major cities, with runways to allow for people requiring quarantine to be easily moved in and out. Accommodation could be provided that would allow quarantined people to have fresh air rather than the air conditioning that is causing the spread of infection inside the quarantine hotels.

Every nation must have lessons to learn but will they be like the Singaporeans and actually act on them? Are we prepared to pay the cost of protective adaptation?
 

Last edited:
@Warrigal, you offer excellent food for thought. Sad to say, most countries, my own included, will likely make few enduring changes. Oh, many will talk about it for a while and even add bureaucratic layers - perhaps a pandemic minister or health emergency cabinet member - but the memory of 2020-21 will fade into the background all too swiftly.

Your story of Singapore is so compelling because rare indeed are the governments that learn from difficult lessons and make expensive changes when the pressure valve has been released.
 
They are choking to death in India and here in the West we have the means to avoid this mass devastation. Yet some people refuse to take a vaccine that could save not only their lives, but the lives of others. It makes no sense to me. No sense!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top