Govt-19: India: From health emergencies to mobilization to issue patents | Front row | Future planet

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Probably India is in the middle Its worst crisis in decades. Some have compared this to the situation in the country during the partition with Pakistan in 1947, when the British Empire left the Asian subcontinent after 300 years of colonial occupation. During this time, social networks have become loudspeakers that broadcast live and guide the misery and suffering of millions of people.

The answer to the most frequently asked question in recent weeks is, how did this situation come about? This is not easy. On the one hand, we believe in ourselves. We believed it India is different (India is different) and the first wave herd immunity had already been achieved, or the human immune system was able to contain the virus due to increased exposure to certain diseases. This led to a false sense of security.

It should be remembered that in a country like India, which has 85% workers in the informal sector and more than 140 million migrants, returning to normalcy is not the only option for returning to pre-epidemic life. But millions of people have to go back to work to survive. Imprisonment, as experienced in Europe or announced in the country in March 2020, has the greatest social impact.

By need, desire or ignorance, The belief that things were controlled This has proven to be awkward jokes. In Spain, you know it with four waves, we know this in India now experiencing a real social emergency.

Our basement hospital has already been renovated in April 2020 to care for Govt-19 patients. Then, the situation overwhelmed us because our professionals got sick, in addition to the immense ignorance and fear that existed at the time. But in this second wave, where our medical team has already been vaccinated, the overflow is very high. Patients come to the hospital with very serious diagnoses, and more than 85% of them need oxygen. The same oxygen supplier who filled our tank told me sadly: “I am going to give it to you as long as I have it, but I am not a god and I cannot give more than the capacity I can produce. I have to serve more than 900 hospitals in Bangalore ”. Before this tsunami of cases came, we refilled our tank more than every 12 days and now have to refill it practically every day. Not only were we within the range of our ability for a few days, but we had to use other places to not let anyone down. Meanwhile, the media is echoing people across the country They die because of the lack of that oxygen. The country is really sinking.

A patient with lung damage we see these days can’t wait five minutes for a provider to arrive late

However, thanks to the solidarity of many in Spain, we are getting closer and closer to having our own oxygen generator to save more autonomy and lives. Our medical and health teams need this oxygen to respond to what is already known Indian Tsunami. For this reason, we had to start the campaign Oxygen to India To collect support and purchase our own generators and cylinders to fill it quickly. A patient with lung damage that we see these days cannot wait five minutes for a provider to arrive late.

In India you should always talk about macro statistics because this country has a continent population of over 1,300 million, More than 350,000 infections per day and an average of 3,000 deaths per day. The most difficult weeks await us because I insist that people who do not have the capacity to provide hospitals need oxygen.

Besides, I would like to emphasize something: we have been living with the infection for more than a year and it seems that we do not know that vaccines are the only solution. This fight will not end until all nations have access to them. Therefore, the issuance of patents is the first step in confronting this fight globally. If this is not available to us, Indian virus strain This will not be the last … If we drop the virus in other countries, it will spread more and more, it will mutate and it may put us back on track: looking for a new vaccine to stop its spread.

Co-led by the Government of India in collaboration with the Government of South Africa Petition to the World Trade Organization to temporarily suspend the intellectual property of vaccines while the epidemic continues; 99 countries support them, but those with more resources continue to object. Given the green light for this alliance, 80% of vaccines will precisely leave India for Africa, Latin America and Asia, but it is important to understand that there is no point in building walls against the epidemic for this.

Monzo Ferrer He is the Director of Programs at the Vicente Ferrer Foundation.

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