Even the dead do not get peace in the age of coronavirus. Early last week, Covid-19 claimed its first patient in Kolkata. When the hearse reached the cremation ground, a crowd had already gathered hearing the news. They were not there to condole but to stop the cremation. Health experts say that the virus remains alive in a dead body for a while after the patient dies. The police tried to clear the mob which turned violent. Rumours about the patient had spread faster than the virus itself in his locality. Neighbours locked up his brother-in-law in his own house. His son lived in the US, and local gossip insinuated that he had visited his parents and passed on the virus. Another bit of fake news was that he had travelled to Italy where he picked up the bug.
The same happened in case of the second coronavirus death in India. The 68-year-old woman’s family was turned away from the Nigambodh Ghat by employees themselves. Only after the news broke on TV was her body incinerated in a CNG crematorium under the supervision of the authorities of the hospital where she passed. A couple of weeks later, a 35-year-old man who was kept on the seventh-floor isolation ward of Safdarjung Hospital leapt to death from the upper floor. He had returned from Australia a few days ago and was admitted with a headache. He had not tested positive at that time. All 1.3 billion Indians are under strict lockdown for 21 days following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second public address. It’s just day fifth of the national curfew. The piercing silence of Neighbourhoods, roads vacant of all but for masked policemen, empty markets and shuttered shops mark the expanding loss of human connection.
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A silent epidemic is rampaging across the country, pitting neighbour against neighbour. Despite most people who catch the virus showing mild symptoms and recovering from home quarantine, the reason for the fear-epidemic, according to psychologist David DeSteno, who wrote in an editorial for The New York Times, is a ‘mix of miscalibrated emotion and limited knowledge’. People are behaving irrationally. A Japanese student was assaulted in London. A Manipuri student was spat upon and called ‘coronavirus.’ Twenty-five-year-old Gaurav Kumar, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, hasn’t been able to go for therapy for a week now. He has intermediate Autophobia. “I am already suffering because of a phobia of being left out. The support group I had joined for help has been suspended for now. I am talking to somebody online but it’s not the same thing. For the first time yesterday, I felt like I had a panic attack when I heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech. I need to go out and seek meaningful connection to make myself feel better. This kind of isolation is making things worse.”
TOXIC INFECTION ONLINE
Fake news has been the main culprit for spreading a fear epidemic, which is rampant on online platforms like WhatsApp—the main transmission agent of dread. The World Health Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed the importance of combating the ‘infodemic’ alongside the epidemic. The first case of fake news in India was probably reported in 1918 by a Pune newspaper during World War I.
It alleged that poison gas, which escaped from France had reached Mumbai, killing hundreds. In fact, Indian soldiers returning home from the WWI battlefields brought the Spanish Flu back, which claimed thousands of lives between 1918 and 1920. Fewer than 15 patients have died of Covid-19 in India, according to official reports, in a population of 133 crore and 500-odd reportedly infected, of which about 50 are foreigners.
Fake advisories went viral advising people to avoid ice-cream and chicken. Health Minister of Haryana Anil Vij tweeted, ‘be vegetarian.’ “Do not create viruses like coronavirus, which pose a danger to humanity by having [meat of] different kinds of animals,” he fraudulently cautioned. A Hindutva fringe outfit even labelled the virus as a nemesis, which has arrived to punish meat-eaters. The government was quick to rebut these claims. Union Food Minister Giriraj Singh, known for his outlandish statements, cautioned restraint. He tweeted, “Coronavirus is not spread by eating fish, chicken, and eggs. Eggs are important source of protein apart from chicken and fish so eat it without any fear.” He promised to post a video of him having eggs.
SCARING THE GULLIBLE
A six-minute YouTube video by Prajapati News declared that seafood is responsible for the epidemic. It got 4.7 million views. The owner, who operates from Bareilly, UP, informed a reporter, “I saw an English news clip which looked like a Chinese news channel, so I thought it would be interesting for Indian audiences. The channel’s subscribers are up from 6.21 million by over 10,000 a day.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha threw an anti-Covid cow piss drinking party for 200 enthusiasts in Delhi and hopes to hold similar events across the country. A BJP MLA from Assam extolled the virtues of cow dung curing everything from coronavirus to cancer. Despite WhatsApp’s ban on fake messaging, one forward said that the pathogen has been cured in China by drinking boiled garlic water. Common false advice is to breathe in deep and hold for 10 seconds.
No discomfort means no corona. Another message blamed migratory birds for spreading the disease. The platforms, while acting as facilitators of news, are also acting as disseminators of misleading information, says Dr Shilpi Majumder, Kolkata-based clinical psychologist. “People are hoarding food and medicines. They have become superstitious and are even abandoning pets for fear of transmission. Not everyone knows how to differentiate between myth and fact,” she says. Fresh Delhi government guidelines are in place promising a three-year jail term for spreading fake news. Many are keeping their morale up using online platforms such as Zoom, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp. A WhatsApp group of friends living in different cities and countries get together each day at a pre-decided time to discuss what is going on.
“Seeing London deserted is weirdly comforting,” said group member Sona. “I know we are not alone. The whole world is in lockdown.” David Ropeik, risk communication expert told USA Today. “When we feel, “Oh my God, there’s a new boogeyman out there’, it comes with extra fear. When we don’t understand something, it leaves us feeling we don’t know everything we need to know to protect ourselves and that equates to powerlessness, and vulnerability.” A 34-year-old bookseller from Pune, Rishabh Kumar, is distraught over his daughter’s mental health. “She is only 14 and becomes hassled every time she coughs or sneezes. Last week she developed symptoms of fever and cried inconsolably. I fear for her life. My wife and I are constantly around her so she doesn’t do anything stupid,”
he says.
SOCIETY ADRIFT
Karishma Pandey (name changed) had just returned from the US after a family holiday. She says, “The fear of the unknown, whether you have the virus or not is terrifying. Most helplines don’t work in Delhi. I’m shut in my bedroom and TV room while my partner occupies the other half of the house. I cannot turn to him for physical reassurance since I fear I’m contagious.” Preeti Kaur, a home-maker from Bengaluru, was shocked to see her husband’s hands shaking as he fell on the bed in extreme mental exhaustion. They had asked their children studying in Canada and California to come home, but all international flights were suspended. She says, “They cannot live in the campus dormitory indefinitely. Where will they go when it’s shut completely? I’m numb with fear for my daughter. How will she find a safe place to live? My son too has gone through a lot of turmoil.” Kaur and her husband are worried that they may not see their children for several months. “This could very well be the Apocalypse,” she laments.
In a world that stands divided on most issues, humanity now has a common enemy: the coronavirus. “Our everyday living structure is centred on certainty. Our control on life through ‘knowing’ has been snatched away,” says Madhumita Ramakrishna, a PhD scholar in Psychology. “The comforting routine of commuting, navigating traffic, contemplating tasks at hand, planning meetings, meeting colleagues, sutta (cigarette) breaks and chitchat is gone. Now there is only unpredictability. Our thoughts are catching up with us and we don’t know how to deal with them,” she says. Lack of physical proximity is driving people up the wall. Swati Rau from Mumbai hasn’t seen her doctor son in Manipal for a month and isn’t likely to for ‘God knows how long,’ she says. I cannot bear to hear his voice when he calls. Isolation is making him ill. Besides being home-sick, his existing anxiety is getting aggravated.”
Researchers from Brigham Young University, USA, found that social isolation can increase the chances of premature deaths by 50 per cent. “Holding on to loneliness-induced stress for long periods produces high amounts of cortisol, or stress hormone, in the brain. It works like an alarm system and at a time like this, the mind begins to perceive the unknown as a threat,” says Sujatha Malhotra, a clinical psychologist from Safdurjung Enclave, Delhi. “Loneliness is a complex issue. It’s associated commonly with the mind but it wreaks havoc on your immune system.
At a time when social distancing has forced people into compulsory hibernation, stress levels are rocketing,” she adds. Coronavirus fear has bombed jobs hard across service sectors leading to financial insecurity and layoffs. An email from IndiGo vice-president said, “The economic environment has deteriorated significantly and no airline is insulated from this severe downturn.” CEO Ronojot Dutta ordered a pay-cut, starting with himself. Some CEOs aren’t drawing their salaries until the situation improves. Ban on ports have stopped cargo shipping affecting Indian exports.
PANIC AT HOME
Anxiety leads to doomsday insecurity, according to Ramakrishna. People working from home are getting insomnia. Lack of physical activity and exposure to sunlight is making people restless, anxious and depressed, according to Dr JC Suri, chairman, Medeor JCS Institute of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Medeor Hospital, Qutab, Delhi. People with serious health issues who need chemotherapy and dialysis are traumatised. “They’ve to expose their already weak bodies to a compromised hospital environment,” says Ramakrishna. Expecting mother Prachi Sood wakes up in the middle of the night, breathless. Delivery is due anytime now. For 10 days, she hasn’t attended prenatal workout classes. Her joints are sore and back hurts. “I constantly worry about the world I am bringing my child into. What if he or she catches the virus from the hospital at the time of delivery?” Pregnant mothers need mobility. They need exercise.
These help in preventing the risk of gestational diabetes, explains Prakriti Poddar, mental health expert and director, Poddar Foundation. “They’re also prone to hormonal fluctuations, and accumulated external stress makes them physically ill,” she says. Another expecting mother from Pune, who was working until now, has been house-bound for a week. She is irritable and angry. “The loss of the sense of space is impacting my well-being. I’m not used to so many people being around the house. There is no privacy and I am constantly tending to everybody’s needs. At times, I feel depressed about the situation because I cannot go out which makes matters worse,” she says. People are developing OCDs in the Covid-19 age, especially for compulsory hand-washing.
Illustrator Rahul Vaid’s doctor advised him to go for therapy immediately. Rahul says, “I was paranoid and petrified. The fact that we don’t know where one can catch the virus forced me to bathe several times daily until I realised that no amount of cleaning was enough.”Blue-collar service staff, who come to cities and work as maids and drivers, are leaving for home, since their employers are sending them away or laying them off. With construction stalled, and train and bus services stopped, migrant labourers cannot return home. “This could lead to a serious law and order problem,” says a top Delhi cop. “Where will they live? How will they eat?”
FEAR IS THE KEY
Dr Harriet Lerner, psychologist and bestselling author of The Dance of Fear told The New York Times, “My advice for coping is the same for all the scary events and possibilities that life brings: Go for the facts; even difficult ones; because anxiety escalates and fantasies flourish in the absence of information.” But don’t overdo it, as too much information can aggravate stress. Avoid unregulated online news sources and rely on depoliticised ones. Last week, Balakrishna from Chittor, Andhra Pradesh, became a victim of fake news. He killed himself after he was convinced that he had contracted coronavirus and feared he would pass it on to his family. He had been watching fake online videos on Covid-19. Though friends and family reassured him that he didn’t have the virus since he had not been in contact with anybody with the disease vectors, Balakrishna had driven them away by throwing stones at them.
The distress has trickled down to air passengers. Sixty-one-year-old Sakshi Sharma (name changed), who flew into Delhi from Canada on March 20, was made to wait in a long line for eight hours. “They handled the situation poorly. We were thrown into a pool of people, any of whom could have been infected. My quarantine experience was disastrous since we were sent to a hotel with ill-prepared staff. When we asked for a nutritious breakfast, they said that the choice of food like poori and potatoes was by government directive,” says Sharma, adding that the situation improved later. Similarly, 62-year-old Nidhi Kapur, whose son was to get married in May, not only had to postpone the wedding but also grapple with chaos at the Delhi airport after landing from Australia on March 22.
Kapur was immediately put in a group of passengers from high-risk countries. “How is that safeguarding senior citizens who are the most vulnerable? We were sent away in DTC buses which ply on the roads. They could be infected. My son underwent thermal screening and was asked to quarantine himself whereas I was asked to stay put in a hotel. They could have given us the option of being in quarantine together and I would have paid for it. Now he’s at home without any help while I am stuck here,” she says. Health professionals, who are particularly at high risk, are soldiering on despite no systematic research into the virus. Their anxiety is fuelled by lack of credible information. News reports broadcast aggravating contradictions about a vaccine being found, which was later denied. US President Donald Trump’s uneducated claim that malaria drug chloroquine can cure Covid-19 has led to three deaths.
THE PANIC BOOM
Though Covid-19 has affected the Indian economy adversely with even worse prospects, the virus is a money-spinner for some businesses, which see opportunities in the fear psychosis. Arihant, a furniture company, advertised its ‘anti-coronavirus mattress with a price tag of Rs15,000. The cow came to the rescue of Mabud Ali, a Bengali milk vendor who decided to cash in on the phobia. Basing his business plan on the power of bovine products, he set up a stall by the national highway selling cow urine at `500 a litre and cow dung at Rs 500 a kilo. Though panic buying hasn’t affected India like manic toilet paper shopping in the US, shops are overpricing hand sanitisers and masks. The high demand and shortage in supply have led to black-marketing. On March 24, the Mumbai crime branch seized face masks worth around `15 crore. The popular N-95 mask, Delhi’s saviour against pollution, was being sold for Rs 300 whereas it costs `100. The day before Modi addressed citizens on Janta Curfew, sale of consumer items more than doubled. Many e-retailers shut shop having run out of sufficient stocks or calibrated sales according to stock.
Online grocers were raking it in until they suspended operations after cops started beating up the delivery boys inconveniencing customers. BigBasket’s traffic and revenue reportedly doubled over two weeks with new users ordering in. Amul reported a significant hike in the sale of tetra pack products. Modi advised against hoarding and assured people that the supply chain will be kept running. Retail consumption has gone up. FMCG companies have increased production, unlike last year when business had slowed down. Corona panic is leading the upward buying trend. Godrej Consumer products reported a 30-35 per cent uptick in the sale of soaps and hand sanitisers. Food Corporation India head DV Prasad, in an interview, assured citizens that there was enough grain to last through a long lockdown. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave state governments three months credit to buy foodgrain from FCI godowns.
India is no stranger to contagions. From 1915-1926, an encephalitis contagion swept across British India. 1960 saw a cholera pandemic raging in Calcutta. In 1970, WHO and Soviet Union sent medical assistance to India, which was reeling under a smallpox epidemic. Surat battled a plague outbreak in 1994. The 21st early century was punctuated by attacks of SARS, Chikungunya, Hepatitis, Nipah and swine flu. The disaster management lessons India has learned from battling these pandemics ensure the country’s resilience in combating Covid. Social distancing can reduce India’s new cases by up to 62 per cent, according to a new Indian Council of Medical Research study. With government resources stretched to the limit, private labs and hospitals are being roped in. The good news is that My labs kits, which was successfully tried out at Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital according to WHO guidelines, will be available starting Monday. Developed in just six weeks, they will bring testing costs by one-fourth of the current Rs 4,500. They expect to produce over one lakh kits every week. The kits also cut the six-eight hour test time to two-and-a-half hours and can detect positive cases even in asymptomatic patients.
Expertise is the only antidote to fear, and India has enough of it.
Side Effects
Though Covid-19 has affected the Indian economy adversely with even worse prospects, the virus is a money-spinner for some businesses, which see opportunities in the fear psychosis.
Challenges
MYTH
Covid-19 virus transmits faster in hot and humid climates
Taking a hot shower can skill coronavirus pathogen
Coronavirus can be transmitted through the bite of a mosquito
Thermal scanners can detect coronavirus
Fact
It can be transmitted in all areas, including hot and humid climates
It does not make you immune to catching the virus
It cannot be transmitted through mosquito bites
Thermal scanners only detect higher than normal body temperature. They cannot detect those that are infected but haven’t developed a fever as it takes two-ten days for the virus to act on the body.