Indian governments have been strikingly forceful in their response
the Spanish influenza, but given the number of Indians it killed, the flu pandemic of 1918-19 should perhaps have carried a different name. Some 18m are thought to have died, or 6% of the country’s population at the time. A century later, with covid-19 lapping at India’s now far more crowded shores, fears are rising that the world’s second-most-populous country could again bear a disproportionate share of the global agony.
Indian governments, both central and state, have also been strikingly forceful in their response. They were quick to restrict travel from afflicted areas and apply basic screening at airports. India has also airlifted—and closely monitored the health of—hundreds of its own citizens from stricken spots such as Wuhan, Tehran and Milan. Public information campaigns have saturated every television channel; recorded messages even interrupt calls on India’s 900m mobile phones.
Many also note the paucity of testing data. Due to the cost and relatively small supply of testing kits, plus the limited capacity of government labs and a commendable desire to control the complex testing process so that it does not itself become a vector for the virus, India has so far only tested some 11,500 people. This compares with 270,000 in South Korea, a country with a fraction of the population.
The public is not well prepared either, particularly for a disease that primarily afflicts the lungs, and is more severe in patients with pre-existing conditions. The prevalence of both extreme air pollution and drug-resistant tuberculosis do not bode well. Indians also account for an estimated 49% of the world’s diabetics. Widespread poverty not only exacerbates such diseases, it makes it practically impossible for many Indians to leave jobs or to work at home.
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