Our muddled response to the covid resurgence Premium Share Via Read Full Story We Indians, like Americans, or citizens of any nation with dreams of greatness, tend to think of ourselves as exceptional. Boasts of our unique resistance to Sars-CoV-2 were exposed as hollow fairly early in the pandemic, but as images emerge of throngs at Gangetic ghats and multitudes at election rallies, the question of what marks us out has been turned on its head. Is there something particular about our vulnerability? What explains such casual behaviour amid a rising wave of infections? In the 24 hours until Thursday morning, our country reported more than 2,00,000 new cases and over 1,000 covid deaths. While the chart’s ascent is sharper than last year’s, the groundswell that is visible in some of our most populous regions is not of caution, but of indifference. This, even as healthcare facilities get overwhelmed in our worst-hit urban centres, forcing some states to impose lockdowns that are called anything but. It is clear that this year’s wave caught public health officials by surprise. What isn’t is why our approach to the danger has lost coherence even on elementary safety protocols. How did we reach this sorry situation?