By Paleisha Kurbah & Graceful Darity Lyngdoh
The lull and the tide in unpredictable manner confuse us. The lull and tide of life. When COVID-19 was first announced in 2019, most people across the world panicked. World leaders tries to convince people that we will survive this. World leaders also blamed each other. Insofar our region, (North East India) is concerned we were not so badly affected in 2020. However, beginning 2021, there is a frightening escalation in the number of people affected, the number of people needing critical care and many who succumbed to COVID-19 too. We also have people who recovered after the infection.
Ours is a small state where the health care facilities are a bare minimum. At the time of writing this article, the oxygen supported beds stand at 859, ICU beds at 135, a total of 994 beds that can accommodate COVID disease patient (meghalayacovid.info). This will not suffice if the trend keeps on increasing. The state of mind of the people ranges from fear to anxiety, to anger and helplessness. The whole dynamics of humanity is shifting to the negative (not that we are writing off the positive human traits that are still seen even during a time as this).
The following are some of the themes that loom large before us as we listen to the voices of the people and our own:
Social change: – humans are social animals, and this COVID-19 pandemic is shaking that fundamental foundation of a society. We have to maintain social distancing, wear masks, cannot hold big gatherings no matter what the occasion. Our movement is restricted and we cannot live freely. People spend most of their time within the confines of their own homes which brings other problems with it. They become an isolated lot and they are drowning in their frustrations and angst.
Division in our community: this pandemic saw people who are divided in their belief systems: there are people who follow protocols to the dot and others who are least bothered. There are the pro-vaxx and the anti-vaxx; those who feel that this virus is real against those who feel it’s a conspiracy. This division appears to be alarming because it may cause a wide gap that might be difficult to bridge once this is all over. We belong to a community that is close knit but the current crisis may propel our society to become more individualistic.
Financial constraints: – Not all people are steadily employed nor work in a steady income facility. The lockdown and its repercussions are affecting them tremendously. Those families that are affected are struggling to make ends meet. This has a negative impact on individuals, families and businesses.
Fear, stress and anxiety: – fear is sensed in every breath without having to speak it out. The candour and the audacity it manifests is humongous. People look at each other with suspicion; families fear how long their reserves will last and so on. There is fear that there will be shortage of medical facilities in the minds of health care providers and public alike. Sudden announcement of lockdown and news of known people who succumbed to the Covid disease is overwhelming and causes undue stress and anxiety. Add to that the flood of information from the media, not knowing anymore which one is true and which false only add to the anxiety.
Ignorance: – Lack of adequate information, unwillingness to accept the directives given builds on the burden on the Government and other authorities. False media information drives people to refuse what would have been otherwise. Our society like most others, has a mix of the well informed, educated and the uninformed uneducated who are influenced by other factors like religious influences and superstitions of all kinds. Somehow the reluctance that was very much there last year has ebbed down now as the pandemic rages more vigorously this time.
Media frenzy: – The tsunami of information that floods our smart-phones now tends to be scary and confuses the public substantially.
Burn-out: – the second wave is putting the Health Care Personnel on their feet most times. Once they have donned the PPE, they cannot eat, drink nor relieve themselves till the end of the shift when they remove the PPE. This causes discomfort, stress and health issues like UTI, gastritis etc., to the workforce. Seeing 5-6 patients die in one go stresses them with the fear of contracting the virus always at the back of their minds. The exponential increase in cases requires them to put in more work hours and less off-duty periods. All of these and perhaps more, burns them out.
Guilt: – Health Care Personnel have families too. To be away from their loved ones for a prolonged period during times like these compounded with high unpredictability of the situation prompts them to want to stay home and not think about their duty. But on the other side there is the call of duty to serve humankind that is imbibed in them as part of their training. This dichotomy may spur a sense of guilt in them sometimes.
Stigma: – In our society, we still encounter a lot of misconceptions in remote and developed areas alike. Health Care Personnel are advised not to come home but stay at their work place during this time especially if they are on COVID-duty so that they do not bring the virus to the locality.
Lack of sufficient resources: – With the number of positive cases, deaths and patients needing critical care and rising numbers of patients needing oxygen, there is a mounting fear that the state will not have adequate resources to handle the situation. There is fear that we may be like most other states in our country where the situation has spiraled out of control no matter how much effort the government and significant others put in. And if this trend goes on, we will indeed run out of not only material requirements and life-saving equipment but human resources as well.
(The writers are President and General Secretary respectively of TNAI Unit, Dr H Gordon Roberts Hospital, Shillong)