There Was Oxygen Shortage And People Died Due To That
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-07-23 13:38:30
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The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, said that there were no reported deaths in India due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of Covid. If it is examined purely from the data and recorded proof angle, the minister's reply is not untrue. None of the states, it seems, have sent data about deaths due to oxygen shortage for Covid patients. But that is because no such data was required to be submitted by the Centre.
When a pandemic hits the world, it is necessary to collect the detailed medical history of each and every patient and the exact cause of the death must be recorded in the death certificate. This is necessary to scientifically analyze everything related to the pandemic. It seems that the Centre was so taken up by the criticism of oxygen shortage and the daily visuals of people gasping for breath outside hospitals that it never occurred to it to tell the states to record such deaths in a clear manner.
But charges and counter-charges in this matter will complicate matters further and the truth will never come out. The fact is that thousands of Covid patients died due to oxygen shortage in the second wave. Their death certificates will probably not mention the fact and record it only as a death due to Covid infection. That is a pity. For India will never know how acute the shortage was and how it led to people suffering and dying due to it. It is a fact that the medical infrastructure in India is woefully inadequate and not acknowledging the same, ignoring the problems or not recording all relevant data properly will ensure that it will remain so in future.
In the world today, everything is driven by data. If we now assume that no Covid patient died due to oxygen shortage, how will we plan for the future? The states are also at fault as when they knew patients were dying due to oxygen shortage, they should have kept separate record of the same. But the Centre should not try to brush the problems under the carpet. A free and transparent discussion on all the problems that cropped up during the second wave is necessary to understand the magnitude and to plan for the future.
