Twisty Tale of Corona

Rohan: Stay 1 metre away from me. It is called Social Distancing.

Reena: How do they practice that in the Mumbai slums whose area is less than 1 metre?

Rohan: I don’t know.

Reena: But anyways so many people dying of the virus Tuberculosis in India. What’s the big thing about coronavirus?

Rohan: Shut all this nonsense up. Can’t you see that COVID-19 spreads very fast. If I have it, I can infect 14 people who I come in touch with.

Reena: Ok but what are the death rates from COVID-19 in India?

Rohan: As of now, that is May 27, 83004 active cases, and dead 4,337. So the death rate now is 5% of the total active cases.

Reena :10 million people had TB in India in 2018. 1.5 million die each year and if we average it out 12 months, around 1 lakh people die each month. As per WHO, COVID-19 has killed 3,18, 935 world over. This figure we cross in just 3 months in case of TB every year.

Rohan: Seriously, I beg of you to stop this nonsense. Do you know if the world had not shutdown, everyone in the world would have contracted COVID-19. Don’t be stupid to compare the two.

Reena : Yes everyone would have got the virus, but not everyone would die. Maybe 5% of the world’s population? I am trying to understand, what is the big fuss about COVID-19?

Rohan: Gosh the whole of last month we have been having this same debate everyday. Now listen carefully for the final time. If I become COVID positive, I will have to be admitted.....eh, oh, eh....maybe, I don’t know. They say the virus affects your lungs and breathing......maybe, I don’t know. I will need a ventilator......maybe I don’t know. There is a dearth of hospital beds and ventilators worldwide..... maybe, I don’t know. Imagine the situation in India. There is no cure yet for COVID-19......that's what Bill Gates says, so you must believe him. Nobody knows how it will spread and how one can get affected. It could be mild or serious..... maybe, I don’t know.

Reena: You sound so confused. Be confident when you talk of a subject. What is this stammering all the time. I was informed that I just need to focus on strengthening my immune system. I need to take care by drinking hot water, turmeric milk, Vitamin C, Zinc, take necessary homeopathy medicines and I will be fine, if God willing I get COVID.

Rohan: Brainless people like you believe tumeric milk will cure COVID. They have termed people like you COVIDIOTS

Reena: But there is proof that not many are dying.

Rohan: Yes my dear, they are not dead because they went to the hospital and got some cure.

Reena: But it is a fact that most also recovered by themselves at home.

Rohan: Yes, yes but it affects different people differently.

Reena: Whatever. I am locked up at home in Mumbai since March 23rd in India, that is two months. When is it going to get over? In Mumbai and Maharashtra, it seems like it is pouring COVID. Maharashtra alone has currently 36,012 active cases of the total 83,004 in India. 

Rohan: This Chinese virus as it has come to be named because it is ‘speculated’ to have originated in China, took China nearly 3-4 months to get it down to zero. Its still not over there or will not be completely over anywhere so soon. Until the vaccine.

Reena: So the moment the vaccine comes to the market, we all need to be vaccinated? 

Rohan: Yes that is what Bill Gates says.

Reena: At least finally the migrants are going back to their homes. Imagine them cooped up whole day in their small houses, without their families, with nothing to do while you are enjoying your 45th movie on Netflix.

Rohan: Err…. Err… but I didn’t know that there are so many migrants all over the country.

Reena: Yes because you thought the robots are building your home and roads. There are few COVIDIOTS but many idiots like you. Open your eyes next time you take a walk. When the migrants collected at the train stations to go back home after 2 months, only then many realised of their existence. Even after that, the only thing media and others could question is how come they broke the lockdown rules. When they were cooped up in their homes nobody was interested in their plight. When pictures appeared on social media of FEW of them walking home, which journalist P Sainath says is quite normal for them to do, with the difference that in normal times, they can stop over at Dhabas to have food and tea. These Dhabas are now closed. After seeing these pictures, the media and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went beserk over the migrants walking. They could not control their tears. I was worried their tears would cause a flood.

Rohan: Oh please don’t talk of floods. Mumbai will soon see another lockdown due to rains.

Reena: Yes better then that everyone continues work-from-home during the monsoons. That’s when the real lockdown should begin.

Rohan: Now relax, you are getting all worked up over this COVID-19. Lets not have any emotional breakdown at these times. It will affect our immune system. What’s for lunch?