Desperate days

In a heart-wrenching press conference in Karachi addressed by senior doctors from leading hospitals and medical centres in Karachi, doctors have warned that the Covid-19 pandemic which has hit Pakistan is already out of control. And that is true: especially if we see how the number of cases went beyond 10,900 by April 23. There have been 230 deaths. And there are no doubts in the minds of experts that further exponential growth lies ahead. The medical experts speaking in Karachi provided harrowing scenarios of a situation in which they are left with no place in hospitals to treat patients, where patients are laid on roadsides and of having to choose which member of a family were to live and which must die. This is obviously a nightmare scenario. Doctors have recommended an immediate and extremely tough lockdown and have stated without reserve that allowing congregations in mosques is just leading to a disaster. They have also asked why no medical expert was included on the panel which reached the decision to open mosques during Ramazan.

The extent to which Pakistan has dithered and gone backwards and forwards over the issue of a lockdown is one of the reasons why we face this terrible situation today. Traders of course have also already been very badly affected by the lockdown, and no one looks at their plight with glee either. But some balance has to be found. We must save lives and prevent a dystopian nightmare unfolding with doctors at its centre even while finding means to offer basic rations to those who can no longer earn. Doctors have pointed out that even the SOPs set in place before are being ignored anyway. They suggest that any visit to a mosque during prayer time would prove this. To further complicate matters, senior clerics have gone on record to say that they have no intention of offering prayers at mosques during Ramazan, since they are above 50 years of age. This is a strange situation: they are themselves then quite aware of the risks, and yet tens of thousands of the less aware will be placed in peril?

This is not a fight between two equal enemies where you can see and target the adversary; it is a war against a virus that is invisible and to date invincible as no medicine has been developed to ensure the eradication of Covid-19, apart from our physical immunity. Even the WHO has been asserting the importance of a strict lockdown to curtail the spread of the virus and even the most developed countries have been unable to curtail the spread of this pandemic. The matter needs to be rethought. The doctors have appealed desperately to the ulema to take back their decision. They have appealed to the prime minister to do the same. Will anyone listen to these frontline heroes who alone are in a position to save us? In the past, they have been mocked and beaten, accused at times of siding with the political opposition. Already, the doctors of the Grand Health Alliance have been urging the government for protective equipment. It is unfortunate that there is too little recognition that they are critical to our future. We must hear the call of our doctors. We must not let our people die and we must not allow Covid-19 to take doctors along with the thousands of citizens it is capable of killing. For this, the government needs to seriously consult medical experts – as well as ensure that all our healthcare personnel get the protective equipment that is necessary for them to work.