Thread by @fascinatorfun

“In between treating patients at the COVID-19 intensive care unit of Mumbai’s prestigious Lilavati Hospital, Parkar appears regularly on TV to give updates on the current, devastating second wave of the pandemic that is killing thousands of Indians.” time.com/5957118/india-…

He himself spent time in the ICU last year and almost died after suffering multiple COVID-complications. Now, he confesses to losing his calm over what he is seeing unfold every day.

“Our healthcare system has collapsed. We have let down our own people in the country,” he says.

“What can doctors do when our infrastructure is unable to take the patients, when there are no hospital beds or oxygen cylinders?”

The distress, horror, rage and despair is palpable

3 health officials.. told me they believe that the daily number of COVID deaths in India has already crossed the 10k figure.

“There is no escape from it; in the past week alone, I have lost four people to COVID-19—a distant relative, my next-door neighbor, and two of my closest friends, both in their mid-30s.”

“In March, when the second wave was already underway, state leaders from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) published full-page ads in national newspapers telling worshippers it was “clean” and “safe” to attend.”

“The Uttarakhand chief minister declared on March 20, “nobody will be stopped in the name of COVID-19 as we are sure the faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”

If that’s not genocide what is?

“Healthcare workers are stretched beyond all comprehension. When I visited the state-run Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation hospital on Sunday, I saw a nurse sitting on the staircase with her head in her hands. She told me she’d been struggling with nausea.”

“The bathrooms had not been cleaned; the workers had given up because there is only one toilet for every 20 COVID-19 patients. The nurse, who did not wish to be named, said she herself was recovering from the virus.”

“Her request for leave had been denied three times and she wished she could resign, but her family of six depends on her. “This is hell, you tell me, is this not?” she said. “They talk of worshipping the medical fraternity but they have left us to die.”

“In other states, the data for COVID-19 deaths are unreliable at best, and at worst fabricated to cover up the devastation. To give just one example, in a crematorium in the state of Madhya Pradesh, 94 bodies were cremated in a day but government data reported only three.”

“But the more overwhelmed morgues & crematoriums become, the less able state governments are to conceal the truth or to bolster the false narrative that all is well in India”

Who is responsible?

Political leaders for sure holding political rallies & telling people they’re safe

Political leaders for failing to prepare.

For their complacency their cover ups and their lies.

Sounds familiar?

There’s more.

“It lies with the upper-middle-class Indians who were last year banging plates from their high-rise windows and lighting candles to praise Modi and celebrate the success of an unplanned lockdown—while poor migrant workers lost their jobs and had to leave the cities.”

“While the rich booked themselves in hospitals using their contacts, they rarely offered monetary help to their employees.”

“Those who keep voting for them, applauding them, writing columns that excuse them and misdirect. ALL have been dropping their pennies in the well of devastation “

Whether it is in India, or the USA, Brazil or the U.K.