Covid -19 is returning with a vengeance in many parts of the world including South Asia. Europe is reeling under its impact, its vaccine roll out in a mess though the UK seems to be doing better though cases have risen again. The US is stable but will face trouble ahead. However, the big bad news is that it’s started to spike in South Asia where most had taken it for granted the pandemic was over. It’s proving that the Virus is unpredictable, if not anything else.
The public behavior response to pandemic has seen three stages generally: Extreme panic and irrational behavior in the first stage. In the second stage, a certain level of caution and response but not efficient management. In the third stage, there is a sort of denial and production of collective fiction about a natural immunity. Usually, all three have led to the current spike. Human beings are naturally inclined to survive but the last stage behavior is a serious challenge to that long held scientific thesis. Behavior till now is almost suicidal.
In the case of Bangladesh, the situation is specific to south Asia. The economic pressures are more intense than health pressures to most people particularly the poor and the marginalized. For them, they can’t afford to take precautions.
For the middle and the upper middle, it’s a question of comfort and convenience. However, the era of comfort in the times of the pandemic is clearly coming to an end as it appears that the virus is smarter than the hosts they look for. It’s the Virus that has been winning every round and the game is hardly over.
Like it or not, it’s time for some radical changes. Central policy making and its application in Dhaka is different from its face in the outreach areas. What happens in Dhaka is also about urban behavior and hospital care. Hence , the focus has to be on multiple types of disease management or prevention.
The slums have been a hot zone of infection but not case fatalities which means infection has not been prevented but the virus itself is of a different kind, perhaps not as virulent as the ones circulating in the West.
In the rural areas, beyond extreme congested living, the focus has to be on balancing both health and economics. While the health policies are taking shape and many have responded positively, one must ask, how sustainable is this response mechanism.
This kind of planning in times of crisis has been rare in Bangladesh but there is no option to this. It’s a fact that public will respond but for that both the carrot and the stick policy must work. It’s hardly a time to be polite as this will cause suffering at every level. Vaccines will be available but slowly and over time so pinning all hope on the vaccines will not be smart.
That needs a kind of social mobilization that is till now missing. It’s time to get a social plan rather than just a health plan to combat the devil at the door knocking again.
