New Delhi, August 12, 2021 (PPI-OT):A report on “The Second Pulse of the Pandemic: A Sudden Surge in the Scientific Temper during the Covid-19 Crises” has found that more than 50 percent people hold the Indian government responsible for the devastating second wave while 78.2 per cent respondents say that politicians did not pay heed to the warnings issued by the scientific community about the second wave.

The report was released at the Press Club of India in New Delhi by Gauhar Raza, Former Prof. AcSIR, Chief Scientist, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources; Surjit Singh, Associate Professor, Indira Gandhi University, Meerpur, Rewari; Leena Dabiru, Legal and Development Consultant; and Shabnam Hashmi, social activist and founder of ANHAD, an NGO.

The report is based on the opinion survey carried out during the first and second waves of the pandemic. During the first wave data was collected through online and offline questionnaires. During the second round the data was collected only through an online questionnaire.

The intensity of Covid-19 pandemic did not permit us to conduct face-to-face interviews and therefore we could not approach those who do not have reading and writing skills. As a result, the level of education of the sampled population was quite high with 35.9 percent graduates and 36.3 percent post-graduates. The gap between the two rounds was one year.

During the first round of survey, which was administered in May 2020, after data cleaning 2,223 filled-in questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis, this number was 2,243 in the second round of data collection in 2021.

The first chapter of the report deals with the statistical analysis and concluding remarks based on the dataset collected during 10th to 25th of May 2021. Citizens from 26 states and union territories responded to our request, which means the database represents almost all part of the country. Among them 55.1 per cent were men and 44.8 per cent were women. There were only two representatives from the LGBTQIA community.

More than 60 percent of those who responded to the questionnaire trusted the information received through the internet and doctors, the most. Other channels of information did not fare well. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (86.6%) correctly pinpointed the place of origin of the pandemic. 80.2 per cent of the respondents correctly said that Covid virus mutated and jumped from bats to humans.

More than 70 per cent of the respondents said if symptoms appear they will contact a ‘Doctor’. 24.8 per cent said that they would go for home quarantine. So despite the attack on allopathic doctors the public perception was in their favour across the country.

In response to the question if the symptoms of the disease appear then what should one do, those who ticked the option ‘’Consult a doctor’ or ‘Quarantine at Home’, put together were more than 90 per cent in 2020, and this percentage increased to more than 95 per cent in 2021.

92 per cent respondents knew the correct name of the test Swab/RT-PCR and 44.3 per cent among them thought that Covid virus is manmade, 32.5 per cent believed that it is a natural process and the virus after it got mutated infected the humans. 84.7 per cent respondents categorically supported the decision to close down religious places during the pandemic only about 6 per cent thought that it was wrong to close the religious centres.

49.5 per cent supported the lockdown, 37.5 per cent were unhappy, they said it created problems instead of presenting a solution. 36.7 percent reported loss of earning and 32.5 percent said their freedom to move was curtailed. 89.9 percent respondents were in favour of building hospitals instead of religious places. 63.7 per cent respondents admitted that they are still afraid of infection while going out.

89.7 per cent agreed that second wave was more intense and led to more serious cases and more deaths. 50.2 per cent directly held the Government responsible for the second wave. About 21.9 per cent thought that people themselves were responsible and 18.9 per cent believed that since the SARS-CoV-2 mutated, the new strand was responsible for virility as well as mortality during the second wave.

30.8 per cent believed that Covid positive dead bodies should be handed over to the relatives. 29.4 per cent of the respondents thought that medical staff should dispose of the bodies. 26.2 per cent of the respondents expressed that relatives should be allowed to witness the last rites only online. 67.1 per cent respondents did not trust the data of the dead and infected released by the central and state governments.

25 per cent believed that the number of deaths due to Covid is about two time the reported deaths, 25.2 per cent thought that it is at least 5 times, 20.3 per cent said it is 10 times and 9 per cent of respondents thought that it is as high as fifteen times. 33.9 percent believed that doctors and medical staff did an ‘Excellent job’ in serving the patients, about 29.2 per cent said that they ‘Performed the duty well’ and 11.4 per cent said ‘they took good care of the patients’. Put together this percentage was 74.5, which shows almost 2/3 of the sampled population was satisfied with the performance of the medical staff.

10.7 per cent believed that the medical staff was careless in treating the covid positive patients. 25.7 per cent said that their family member was infected by Covid. 31.0 per cent reported that their close relative was a corona positive patient. 28 per cent of the respondents believed that the number of dead was more than the number of people recovered after the disease. 49.6 per cent said most people recovered even after testing corona positive.

41.8 per cent respondent reported that they had lost someone in the family or relation during the second wave of the pandemic. 78.2 percent gave a scientifically correct answer and said the vaccine increases the immunity and boosts the human body’s capability to fight the infection. 55.7 per cent respondent knew someone who was tested positive even after taking two doses of vaccine.

About 87.7 per cent respondent said that even after vaccination observing social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands frequently was necessary. 83.6 per cent expressed that it is the responsibility of the government to bear the cost of vaccination. 43.2 per cent respondents said scientists played the most important role in developing the vaccine. 34.6 per cent thought scientists deserve the credit but could not have developed the vaccine without the government support.

In all about 77.8 per cent gave credit to the scientific community. If we look at the comparative shift presented in Chapter two, the percentage of those who said, ‘Consult a Doctor’ was 75.3 in 2020 and reduced to 70.7 per cent in 2021.

However, there was a substantial increase in the percentage response ‘Quarantine at Home’, i.e., from 14.8 per cent in 2020 to 24.8 per cent in 2021. In 2020, when we had asked what test do doctors conduct to test the infection of Covid-19, about 68 per cent of those who responded knew that the PCR test is conducted by taking swab of a person, In about one year’s time 92.6 per cent respondents knew that for testing if a person is Covid infected or not RT-PCR test is carried out by taking swab from throat and nasal cavity. Chapter three contributed by Dr PVS Kumar gives a detailed account of the debate around the pandemic.

The fourth chapter contributed by Prof. Arun Kumar discusses how governments failed to deal with emerging economic crisis and added to the peoples’ misery. The government presents data based on the organized sector performance for which it gets the data regularly. But this ignores the crisis in the unorganized sectors of the economy which have borne the brunt of lockdown.

Thus, official data project a brighter picture of the economy than the actual. It is reported that 230 million people have slipped below the poverty line due to the pandemic. The unorganized sector in India employs 94% of the workforce and produces 45% of the output. It came to a complete halt.

Appendix-I gives an overview of the first round of data analysis and conclusions which were presented in the first report entitled ‘Pulse of the Pandemic, A sudden Surge in Scientific Temper during Covid-19 Crisis’.

Leena Dabiru has collated reported myths, superstitions, fear and panic which were circulated among the public during the second wave which are given in Annexure-The Covid Survey report The Second Pulse of the Pandemic: A Sudden Surge in the Scientific Temper during the Covid-19 Crises.

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