Thread by @ProfSomashekhar

The Indian #COVID19 response lacks many things. Among them,
1-Twitter is full of people posting lateral flow tests where they found relatives positive at home. Don’t see that happening in India.
Interpretation: either the tests are not available (freely and low cost) OR 1/n

Equally likely - most Indians think the responsibility of their health is of the government aka health system. Like most things we outsource things we should be doing.
2-Lack of transparent funding and/or approval of research. The Covaxin trial is a prime example. 2/n

Check the sites that did the trial and you find very few sites that are known for high quality research. How the sites were selected isn’t known. In fact many in the area of some sites didn’t know such a hospital did research. Our proposal for community based early detection 3/n

Of #covid is stuck in govt red tape for six months.
3-Barely any collaborative research. I know of govt faculty telling me explicitly that they were not being allowed to do research or publish data from government hospitals. This is well known and no faculty 4/n

Will say this openly as their careers will be jeopardized. Many get transferred or suspended for flimsy reasons and if the system wants to get you, you are done! The govt system (politics does not matter, bureaucracy does) can harm you even if they are trying to help you. So, 5/n

4- There is hardly any concern for #LongCovid or doing anything about it in India. Either among the policy makers or even private entities. Zilch discussion about it despite being a problem.
5-Children vaccination should have assumed a prominent role in the discussion 6/n

At least a few months back. We are now into the third year and we have no public data on the vaccines available for them and no plan in place. They constitute 40% of the population. While 🇬🇧 delayed kid vaccination they ensured that they got a better dose vaccine 7/n

Which has got approved this week. We have typically shown the least concern towards kids vaccines (and by extension schooling and education). Blaming the govt will not cut it as I see very few in the ‘civil society’ discussing it. Govts take action when votes matter. 8/n

6- The postponing of the #neetpg2021 the poorly construed new rule and subsequent postponement of #neetpg2021counselling has hurt those who have contributed the most. It signifies that neither the society or govt is concerned about its own health (even in pandemic times) 9/n

While medicine as a field is exciting, practicing it in 🇮🇳 is a pain if you are in the public system.
Interpret freely as I find many can’t even understand simple tweets. (Reason why govts have gotten away for last seven decades - health takes time)
10/n and End.