On hindsight, being just a blogger, not our job to tackle the pandemic, not being paid millions to understand and come up with a sound strategy, with a team of experts to assist, it is fair that we can use the excuse of hindsight to look at what is happening and what could be the reason why we ended up here.
Anyone who thinks that we have done well must be out of his mind. And any silly bugger who said it could be worse, got to visit the IMH. We were the envy of the world, we were on the lips of world leaders in managing the pandemic and sitting pretty in Level 1, as one of the most successful country outside China containing the virus. Every country wanted to learn from us, wanted to have special entry lane for visitors with us. We could pick and choose who we want to let in under special arrangements. But that is history.
Where are we now, Level 4, a high risk country determined by our great friend the USA. We are as good as a basket case without admitting it. Countries are avoiding us. Level 1 and 2 countries would not want to have VTL with us as we are now high risk. It is a great achievement, like going from first world to third world and it needs very exceptional talents to make it happen overnight.
When we we sitting up there looking pretty and clean, what prompted the govt to choose between zero Covid or living with Covid, aka Level 1 or Level 4, between a safe country and a basket case country? Before the decision was made to go for living with Covid, what were the considerations in their minds? Why would we take the plunge into the mud hole when we were almost Covid zero? We were clean and safe, or was it a lie, that what the public knew was not the true picture and we were already in the shithole? This could be the main reason as the truth could not be hidden for long. We had let in too many Delta Variant visitors during the height of India's days of hell. For whatever stupid reasons, the Delta Variant is already in the community and there is no way out, it was breaking at the seams. So it was a case of no choice. There was no way to keep the infection down.
If we were really nearly Covid zero, who would be so stupid to suggest the option of living with the Covid and live with the huge spike in infection, hospitilisation and deaths? Any average person would have to insist on staying Covid free when we could and were almost there.
Imagine if we had kept it real low, maybe not Covid free but low enough, who do you think would be in the list of VTL countries? China, Hong Kong and Taiwan would provide us with enough Covid free tourists to fill up our hotels and tourist sites. Instead, we are now taking greater risk in including Level 3/4 countries to send their unsafe tourists here, and you know what, when many vaccinated are dangerous carriers of the virus but with no symptoms, are we being safe, being responsible to the safety and well being of our citizens?
Rubbish and highly dangerous visitors from Level 3 and Level 4 countries being let in to spread the virus if they happened to be carriers? High risk living and low thinking? I am not even looking at the numbers of fake certificates coming in. Were they able to verify the vaccination certificates as genuine?
Now who decided to go down this stupid path of living with the Covid when we were doing fairly well? Or who convinced or influenced MTF to go down this path? Any foreign interference or all voluntary, so self inflicted tragedy?
PS. With many countries in deep shit after choosing to go down the path of living with the virus, voluntarily, having lost control, or being influenced or mismanaged, a big part of the world would be together in this struggle for existence and pretending that this is the new normal, living with high infections, high hospitalisation and high number of daily deaths. They might even congratulate themselves for being 'able to live with Covid as a way of life' and sneering at China and some countries that are living inside their Covid free bubble. Poor China, still cannot live with Covid and have to be isolated from the world.
Two outcomes from this. The rest of the live with Covid countries can develop natural immunity and no longer be impacted by Covid, with Covid becoming a common flu, and infection, hospitalistion and death falling to insignificant level. That is the best outcome that living with Covid countries hope to achieve.
The second outcome, the herd immunity did not happen and the rest of the world would plod along like what it is today, restrictions on and off, lockdown on and off, infection, hospitalisation and death continue to be high.
China and Covid free countries would continue to live in their sanitised bubbles. Chinese people can travel out of China, but fully vaccinated. Foreigners going into China would be quarantined and to go through several stages of medical tests to make sure they don't spread the virus in China.
The world economy will chug along, China's economy would also chug along, but it would be a world divided, one free from the Covid disease, one diseased. Who is better off? China is big enough and does not need the tourist money and does not have to endanger its people with tourists from diseased countries flooding the country.