While I do think it is true that people break norms, I'd say a large factor here has been the messaging and leaders behaving like the danger is past.
Leaders like the home minister, Amit Shah [1] and the health minister Harsh Vardhan [2] have been saying that we are in the end stage from Jan. Starting vaccinations is not the end game. We opened up for crowds for a cricket match (57k) [3] and kumbh mela [4] (actively promoted by the state and central govt), where the latter was expecting crowd in millions. (10 lakhs is 1 million). Covid protocol could really not be followed with that crowd [11]. We literally had an Assam minister saying that masks weren't needed earlier this month[6]. And of course election rallies with big crowds [5]. PM Modi was exulting about a huge crowd just a few days ago [12] Amit Shah was actually saying these are not related to the spikes [13]
I'd actually lay the blame on these:
- Inconsistent messaging on safety precautions.
- Vaccine shortage and related slow vaccination drives. India did not give advance orders and stockpile vaccines [8]
- Oxygen shortage. We already know oxygen was needed. The govt didn't follow through and build capacity for oxygen plants. We floated tenders 8 months into the pandemic and didn't follow through [9]
- We did not pay attention to and sequence variants to stay on top of things. [10]
I could go on... we are short various medicines, facilities; state govts of Gujarat, UP, MP, Bihar were actively under reporting by sometimes more than 10x [13]- if you don't acknowledge the problem, you can't fix the problem; not opening up vaccinations to everyone and not letting in vaccines that were already approved outside (both until very recently); not listening to folks who were trying to point these out...
Apologies for the long response. But yea, I'm shocked at how bad things are, and, while I think people can follow rules better, I'd squarely lay the blame for this on the govt.
Leaders like the home minister, Amit Shah [1] and the health minister Harsh Vardhan [2] have been saying that we are in the end stage from Jan. Starting vaccinations is not the end game. We opened up for crowds for a cricket match (57k) [3] and kumbh mela [4] (actively promoted by the state and central govt), where the latter was expecting crowd in millions. (10 lakhs is 1 million). Covid protocol could really not be followed with that crowd [11]. We literally had an Assam minister saying that masks weren't needed earlier this month[6]. And of course election rallies with big crowds [5]. PM Modi was exulting about a huge crowd just a few days ago [12] Amit Shah was actually saying these are not related to the spikes [13]
I'd actually lay the blame on these:
- Inconsistent messaging on safety precautions.
- Vaccine shortage and related slow vaccination drives. India did not give advance orders and stockpile vaccines [8]
- Oxygen shortage. We already know oxygen was needed. The govt didn't follow through and build capacity for oxygen plants. We floated tenders 8 months into the pandemic and didn't follow through [9]
- We did not pay attention to and sequence variants to stay on top of things. [10]
I could go on... we are short various medicines, facilities; state govts of Gujarat, UP, MP, Bihar were actively under reporting by sometimes more than 10x [13]- if you don't acknowledge the problem, you can't fix the problem; not opening up vaccinations to everyone and not letting in vaccines that were already approved outside (both until very recently); not listening to folks who were trying to point these out...
Apologies for the long response. But yea, I'm shocked at how bad things are, and, while I think people can follow rules better, I'd squarely lay the blame for this on the govt.
[1] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/union-home-minister-amit-sha...
[2] https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/we-are-...
[3] https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2021/03/15/narendra-modi-...
[4] https://www.thequint.com/news/india/massive-crowd-gathers-fo...
[5] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/covid-has-a-...
[6] https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/assam-health-minister-himan...
[7] https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/dec/22/no-masks...
[8] https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/how-we-landed-in-covid-...
[9] https://scroll.in/article/992537/india-is-running-out-of-oxy...
[10] https://scroll.in/latest/990519/coronavirus-less-than-1-samp...
[11] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/maha-kumbh-m...
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5jzuE866lo
[13] https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1384782949879517185 (may have to go through the twitter link to access ft article)