The Second Wave!

 It's been a bit more than a year into the pandemic. World over, it has been tough times for everyone. 

There was so much happening, so much VUCA(typical management jargon: Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity) that there was not enough clarity of thought to write something meaningful.

Personally and professionally, things were tough for most part of 2020. But thankfully, perseverence, tact and courage during these tough times meant that it concluded as THE best year for me in terms of outcomes at work.

All the 3 programs under my responsibility had desired success. This was largely possible due to the support of the teams working on it, who were relentless in their quest for success. This was also true for our entire department, where collectively we delivered crucial deliverables inspite of the pandemic.

This meant that the ones who worked really hard, were very well rewarded. 

Lesson learnt: During the toughest times, put in the best efforts. It pays bigtime!

The stock markets, which tanked initially recovered sharply. An election year in the US  meant easy access to funds which moved our markets irrationally. I must admit, I may have missed a major part of this rally. But more importantly, many new first time retail investors entered into this market. 

Whether or not they make money in the long term needs to be seen, but it certainly gave me a sustainable and viable path for an alternate career. Whether or not I shall really take it or not, only time will tell.

This meant that I spent a lot of time learning through material available on the internet, and also learning through books.

Lesson learnt:  Knowledge is Power!

I must admit, I may be following 10% or lesser from what I read from these books. 

But I'll get there!

From a fitness perspective, social distancing norms meant that I wasnt keen on continuing with badminton till I felt confident about the situation. I switched to cycling, mostly 20-30 kms rides on a mountain bike over the weekends on the slopy city roads.

This has helped my stamina, focus, and more importantly, will power. 

Next step is to graduate to longer rides on a road bike, but when that will happen only time will tell!

But there's a more important reason why I chose to write this post today. 

While the pandemic's supposed third wave is impacting most parts of the world, the second wave as they call it, has hit India really hard! 

This time the numbers have been much larger, and going up in an exponential manner. This has been compounded by reported 'double' or 'triple' mutations. This is leading to many false negatives in RT-PCR tests, and also casting a doubt on the efficiency of certain vaccines available today.

We could say increased economic activity, elections in 5 states, Kumbh Mela, IPL or whatever. But the root cause is us! We let our guard down, and it is having serious implications on everyone. This may have also many impacted people who did nothing much wrong, and simply stayed home.

And the government is only as good as the people who vote for it(or dont vote at all), similar to "Yatha Raja thatha Praja" in the olden times.

In the first and second waves, even the most developed and wealthiest nations had serious pressure on their well developed healthcare systems. As a developing nation, the pressure on our systems is going to be manifold. 

Despite all this, we still managed to help many countries, even developed nations in meeting their medical demands, even if its in a small way(HCQ tablets, vaccines, etc). Irrespective of which government is in power,  as Indians we would have anyway done it. 

But the same developed nations are now being "practical" in our times of need.

There has been a deliberate attempt to block access to raw materials which could scale up our vaccine manufacturing capacity. Being the pharma capital of the world, we have enough capacity to manufacture for our need, and for the everyone else's as well. The political rhetoric from even the European countries has been disconcerting.

Negative global press coverage apart, as a precaution many countries have stopped flights to India. As they tackle their own problems, should something go wrong to the Indians who have gone to these "developed countries" for education, in search of greener pastures, or for work, we need to be fully aware that they would only naturally give preference to their citizens.

The situation today is grim, it can only get worse before it can better. The next 2-3 months are going to be critical for that.

It will surely get better, and we need to do our bit for that.

Stay positive, but stay extremely cautious. Staying away from news channels is a good first step to stay clear of depressing thoughts.

Restrict social interactions, especially in groups to a minimum.

Everything else can wait. Be close to your near and dear ones. You never know who needs your help when, and vice versa.

Exercise restraint on social media, especially on posts related to political propaganda. They serve no good to anyone, but simply build acrimony amongst the people. We need to be standing united as a nation now. No time for politics!

Show compassion, help the needy wherever you can.

Most importantly, at the first given opportunity, get vaccinated. 

We have setup one of the largest vaccination programmes in the world. As on date we have been able to completely vaccinate only 1.5% of our population, despite giving close to average 25 lakh doses on a daily basis. 

The developed nations have hoarded a large chunk of the global vaccine supply, thanks to their superior buying power. Now that the government has opened vaccination for all above 18 years of age, please register and get vaccinated. We may need to match dollar for dollar to secure this supply for ourselves. Even after both doses, we need to be patient for a few weeks, if not months till the antibodies build up and immunity is achieved.

Dont relax yet!

Apparently herd immunity is achieved reliably when more than at least 60% of the population is vaccinated, or exposed to the virus. Remember, kids below 18 years of age are still not covered yet. 

To be safe, we need to ensure that the vaccination rate crosses a significant part of our population. Given our population, all this could take 3-6 months at a minimum. 

Patience. Jaan hain tho jahaan hain!