Lancet slams Modi for Covid crisis, calls attempts to curb criticism ‘inexcusable’
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government’s attempts to curb criticism and open discussion during the coronavirus pandemic are “inexcusable”, an editorial published in medical journal The Lancet said on Saturday. Without mincing any words, the Lancet editorial stated: “At times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has seemed more intent on removing criticism on Twitter than trying to control the pandemic. Modi’s actions in attempting to stifle criticism and open discussion during the crisis are inexcusable.”
It was referring to Twitter
complying with the Central government’s warning last month to take down 50-odd tweets that were critical of India’s handling of the sec
ond wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The editorial published in the world’s most renowned medical journal said the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that India will see a staggering 1 million deaths from Covid-19 by August 1.
“If that outcome was to happen, Modi’s government would be responsible for presiding over a self-inflicted national catastrophe,” Lancet said in a scathing criticism of the government.
The Lancet said India squandered its early successes in controlling Covid-19. Until April, the government’s Covid-19 Taskforce had not met in months, it said. “The consequences of that decision are clear before us. India must now restructure its response while the crisis rages. The success of that effort will depend on the government owning up to its mistakes, providing responsible leadership and transparency, and implementing a public health response that has science at its heart,” the Lancet said. It suggested that India must reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission as much as possible while the vaccine is rolled out. “As cases continue to mount, the government must publish accurate data in a timely manner, and forthrightly explain to the public what is happening and what is needed to bend the epidemic curve, including the possibility of a new federal lockdown,” it said. Genome sequencing needs to be expanded to better track, understand and control emerging and more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants, it said. “Local governments have begun taking disease containment measures, but the federal government has an essential role in explaining to the public the necessity of masking, social distancing, halting mass gatherings, voluntar y quarantine, and testing,” it added.
Lancet said the botched vaccination campaign must be rationalised and implemented with all due speed. There are two immediate bottlenecks to overcome: increasing vaccine supply (some of which should come from abroad) and setting up a distribution campaign that can cover not just urban but also rural and poorer citizens, who constitute more than 65 per cent of the population (over 800 million people) but face a desperate scarcity of public health and primary care facilities, the editorial said. The government must work with local and primary healthcare centres that know their communities and create an equitable distribution system for the vaccine, it added. Lancet said the scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend. As of May 4, more than 20.2 million cases of Covid-19 had been reported, with a rolling average of 3,78,000 cases a day, together with more than 2,22,000 deaths, which experts believe are likely to be substantially underestimated, Lancet said. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and health workers are exhausted and becoming infected. Social media is full of desperate people (doctors and the public) seeking medical oxygen, hospital beds, and other necessities, it said.