Doctors bite the bullet

They clapped their hands and clanged their utensils to cheer the men and women who left the comfort of their homes and at clear risk to their lives went to the frontlines to vanquish the coronavirus. And then they abused and assaulted them, evicted them from their houses and pelted them with stones.

The government did not provide them with PPE suits, so they went to battle in helmets and raincoats. The virus spared no one. Yet the ones they strove to save resisted their efforts. Nurses and doctors in Kolkata and Delhi faced eviction threats. And in town after town, city after city, health workers trying to collect samples for tests were castigated and turned away.

Two doctors were injured in Indore when they went to a neighbourhood to trace a Covid suspect and were chased by locals. Seven people have been arrested. In Bengaluru, Asha workers had their phones snatched away while conducting a survey of people who attended the recent Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation. In Delhi, Covid suspects from the Jamaat spat at Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital doctors. In Munger, a police jeep that accompanied personnel out to collect samples was damaged. In Hyderabad, a Covid patient went berserk and attacked an on-duty doctor following the death of his brother due to the virus.

Taking note of these incidents, the home ministry has now asked states to provide paramilitary cover to medical teams, if necessary, when they visit hotspots. All this would have beggared both belief and rationality, even under normal circumstances.

While in the UK five lakh voluntarily joined the National Health Service in this time of crisis, in India doctors on way to work were harassed and beaten up by police and threatened with arrest, but they still went back and completed their 12-hour shifts. But how well are their colleagues going to hold up? Has the new coronavirus pandemic exposed the anomie in our society? Does India deserve its doctors?