India Today

WHEN WILL THE NIGHTMARE END?

TOP EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON INDIA’S BEST HOPES TO HALT THE RAMPAGING SECOND WAVE OF COVID-19

- BY RAJ CHENGAPPA

When Bhramar Mukherjee, an Indian American professor of epidemiolo­gy at the University of Michigan, noticed an uptick in new cases of Covid-19 being reported in Maharashtr­a on February 27 this year, she instinctiv­ely knew that a fresh wave was going to hit India. Mukherjee tweeted that India should scale up its vaccine rollout and citizens should start double masking and avoid large gatherings. She then dialled her ageing parents in Kolkata and urged them to get vaccinated. Her parents didn’t listen to her and neither, apparently, did Indian policy makers, who prematurel­y declared victory over the virus after the first wave of infection subsided in November 2020.

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A woman mourns by the burning pyre of a loved one who died of Covid-19 in New Delhi, May 8
SURVIVAL AT STAKE A woman mourns by the burning pyre of a loved one who died of Covid-19 in New Delhi, May 8

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