In J&K, coronavirus came with passports too

Arun Joshi

From Wuhan to Kashmir, coronavirus has played out in two sets of stories. One, China suppressed the news of the origin and the devastating potential of this fatal disease. And, added to this was our collective failure to wake up to the threat in time elsewhere in the world, including our country.

We woke up to the dangers and its possible catastrophic effects weeks after the World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic.

The virus did not take first available flight from Wuhan to Europe or India to cast its deadly shadow all over. It took its time, but the world slept over the matter for all these weeks. Consequently, it is now paying huge price for failure in the field of public health.

China failed in recognising the fact that despite its high-level progress in technologies, there was something more powerful and speedier than its accomplishments. In this world of hundreds of flights every second across the world choking the sky lines and economies running on computers, the virus could cause incalculable crash. That’s what it did.

The virus trotted the globe free of cost, knowing that it had no barriers. The virus reminded us that it was deeply aware of the maxim of world being a global village, as seen and understood in the 20th century. It broke all the barriers of protectionism and ultra-nationalism tempering several parts of the world.

The virus didn’t have a passport, nor did it recognise any of these formalities.

But it did land in J&K with many passport holders, who thought that their hiding the travel history would immune themselves from the deadly effects. They skipped protocols at airports, ran away from hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar. That was an act of cowardice, and the worse was that this act might result in an unforeseen catastrophe.

This is happening in J&K almost every day since the natives have started coming from abroad, some of them from the worst-affected countries. What did they want to achieve by doing all this? No one knows. They should have known that it is because of them that the paradise is reeling under an unprecedented lockdown, as if Kashmir has not had enough of it already.

The fault also lies with the system. There is no or little awareness about public health. The system has to answer questions why public health doesn’t figure on its priority list, and for that matter, hospitals are confirming it with frightening frequency that they are understaffed and ill-equipped to meet any crisis . The money that should have gone to improve the health care went somewhere else. Only those who have been in power for years together can answer this. But, given their clout, answers will never be out.

J&K has perhaps the best doctors in the world, who can treat worst-to worst trauma cases. They are dedicated, but with bare hands, without basic requirements of gloves, gear and masks , how can they handle such a serious situation?

The worst problem in J&K is the low priority that public health receives here. And, now it is paying the price. It has told tourists not to visit Kashmir – the “paradise”, Vaishno Devi shrine has been shut for devotees for the first time in history.

J&K is plagued with shortage of public health experts. The community medicine is not given the importance and resources that it deserves. The price is being paid and it would be heavier in the days to come. The virus is threatening to come out of the closets.