This thread is full of people pointing fingers at:
1. Election rallies
2. Kumbh Mela
3. Farmer Protests (Yes, they are still going on)
4. The government's incompetence.
And all of these are completely valid reasons. But does anyone living in the country really believe that these are the only reasons? There are still people who believe that Covid is a hoax. People who had not worn a mask for the last 6 months now wear paper thin masks in large crowds and expect to not get Covid.
My neighbor contracted Covid recently, but they have not told anyone about it. All of their household help is still coming. Some of the family members still go out to meet others.
This situation is really a reflection of the selfishness of the people. I have seen medium-sized business that cut salaries if employees take leaves due to covid. So these employees hide their symptoms and report to work. If you are doing any of these things, please self-reflect.
Yes. These are the major reasons not the "only" reasons. Sure, there will be a few percentage of people who are irresponsible, but we have to look at the big picture as well. Mass gatherings are far more responsible for the spread than a few people not wearing masks.
Absolutely, I am not trying to defend that stupidity here.
Also, it was not a 'few' people not wearing masks. It has always been a few people wearing masks. And what qualifies as a mask for most people should really be questioned.
Where I live (Germany) all of these actions would be illegal.
I think broadly speaking governments do a lot to set the tone of what's acceptable in the pandemic, by what they say, and what they do. A big government rally is powerful legitimation for being selfish.
Well, if a country if full of people believing COVID is a hoax and wearing a mask is useless - what do you think you will get? You get exactly what's happening now.
Deep down in the human psyche, I think we all believe that disease is a punishment for our bad behavior. So we always see comments saying it’s because of X or Y. But from what I’ve seen, this disease is very chaotic in its spread. So I think the discussion has to be less “it’s because of X” and more “things like X have increased the risk factor”
From what I have read online, I would say that very few people in news media are blaming the farmers' protests (at least in international coverage), even though those protests are longer-lasting and larger gatherings than most of the others. What I am mostly seeing is Western liberals blaming the conservative government of a developing nation by pointing at election rallies (which only took place in a few states and were held by all parties), religious events (because liberals are often anti-religion or Hinduphobic), or the government (who actually has been highly competent in managing the pandemic overall).
I don't think there is enough evidence (yet?) to call any one factor a "key contributor". We simply don't know. People in India were increasingly mobile as their pandemic conditions improved into a low steady state (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/changes-visitors-covid?co...). I am guessing that some combination of the things you listed, plus general increase in mobility, plus some new variant of the virus that spreads more easily, is what led to this situation. India went from normal conditions to hitting the previous peaks within a month, and that feels like something more than just a few isolated events.
> This situation is really a reflection of the selfishness of the people.
That might be fair to say in a developed nation that is wealthier. But in many other nations, people simply need to work or go to places where they are around other people. They don't have the infrastructure, wealth, and luxury of remote work or delivery services to just avoid society altogether or reduce society-wide mobility. They also don't have the same amount of home entertainment choices like streaming services or expensive video game consoles or whatever else. I imagine shutting down cities is a much more significant challenge in places that are denser than, for example, American cities, but without the same economies, standards of living, disposable income, and so on.
1. Election rallies
2. Kumbh Mela
3. Farmer Protests (Yes, they are still going on)
4. The government's incompetence.
And all of these are completely valid reasons. But does anyone living in the country really believe that these are the only reasons? There are still people who believe that Covid is a hoax. People who had not worn a mask for the last 6 months now wear paper thin masks in large crowds and expect to not get Covid.
My neighbor contracted Covid recently, but they have not told anyone about it. All of their household help is still coming. Some of the family members still go out to meet others.
This situation is really a reflection of the selfishness of the people. I have seen medium-sized business that cut salaries if employees take leaves due to covid. So these employees hide their symptoms and report to work. If you are doing any of these things, please self-reflect.