Page 69 - EW July 2021 final

they are making a comeback because How heavy is the price that the world’s mitigate the disaster and we should
of a pervasive belief in science and largest child and youth population resid- strive for maximum coverage. The
vaccination. We need to educate our ing in India will have to pay for the official third is that we need better metrics
population to think similarly. and societal mismanagement of the to track pandemics on a daily basis,
current Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the especially since our testing facilities
As an economist to what extent do you country? are so limited. We need to release
agree with the contention that our inabil- We have lost so many loved ones in the all-causes mortality statistics col-
ity to manage the raging Covid-19 pan- this pandemic. The psychological lected by the Civil Registration Sys-
demic despite a long history of pandem- cost will persist for some time. The tem on a daily basis for all districts
ics, is a natural consequence of adoption livelihoods destroyed will take time of India so we can track the pan-
of inorganic neta-babu socialism and to recover so there is a lot of econom- demic even where there are limited
persisting with this failed model? ic misery as well. Covid testing facilities. Moreover, we
There are hard trade-offs involved in should not shut down the railways
pandemic management. I would not What in your opinion are the major les- with a four-hour notice period and
say that either socialism or capital- sons that government and the public cause mass misery for millions of our
ism matters in this, but an ear close should learn to prevent and/or manage migrant workers.
to the evolving science on the disease inevitable health epidemics and pandem-
definitely helps. That can happen ics of the future? Any other comment?
when we have efficient data collec- The first lesson is that pandemics There are two core qualities required
tion and dissemination systems. For come in waves. After the first all- in navigating pandemics: patience
instance, a year and a half after the India wave, we seemed to think it and humility. As I’ve written in my
current pandemic started, we are was all over. Even a cursory look at book, there seem to be four stages
still not releasing daily all-causes the history of pandemics in India or of pandemics — denial, confusion,
death numbers which is critical for what was happening with Covid in acceptance and erasure. Those who
tracking the pandemic, and which other countries should have cau- erase less from memory will be in
many developed countries are now tioned us. The second lesson is that less denial mode and navigate the
doing. we should have vaccine reserves to next pandemic better.

JULY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 69