A foreigner's scary tale of being checked for COVID-19 in India

Here's a description someone emailed to me yesterday about what happened after they wanted to be checked out in India for possibly having COVID-19, the dreaded coronavirus.

Hopefully this doesn't describe a typical medical experience in India. If it does, India is in deep trouble as it fights the coronavirus (currently the country is in the midst of a three-week stay at home lockdown). 

If you aren't aware what paan is, check out the Wikipedia page about this commonly chewed substance in India.

I was in India recently. Just got back a little over a week ago. Had a great time for the most part skateboarding a bit, visiting one of my best friends, and just bumming around looking for potential investment properties and doing touristy things.

To make a long story short, I'd been coughing since almost the first week I arrived in India, attributing the cause of the cough to the fact that I was in a place with more air pollution than hell, and I was also smoking super strong clove cigarettes all day every day.

But the cough never went away totally even when I stopped smoking altogether, and as the corona hysteria grew it made me a bit nervous about myself, but more importantly for the people I was staying with.

One day I asked the hosts I was staying with to call the corona hotline India had set up, and was instructed to immediately go to one of the well known hospitals in the city. The family assured me that it's the most advanced place with the most professional doctors and all that stuff.   

Since I thought I should minimize risk and not unintentionally spread corona to randoms on the street, I walked to the main road at about 11PM and called an Ambulance, thinking they might have some sort of transportation procedures. I was wrong.

Between my own crappy attempts to give directions in Hindi plus locals on the street speaking to the dispatchers on my speaker phone, it took almost 15 minutes just to explain where I was. No big deal for me, but I imagine people die there all the time just from the incompetence of the people on the phones who ask pertinent questions such as "aap foreign hai?" (are you foreign) over and over again.

Moving on, an ambulance finally arrived and I was instructed to get in and not touch anything. The ambulance was the dirtiest thing I've seen in any kind of medical scenario in my life, and they drove like madmen, nearly making me fly off my seat about 10 times. 

After a few seconds we arrive at the hospital, and the first thing I see is a big sort of half indoor half outdoor enclosure packed full of people coughing, screaming, crying and sleeping. There is wet paan spit every few inches on the road, stray dogs are everywhere in and around this tent-like building and the noise is basically no different than the streets of India.

The whole place looks like a war zone with the exception of the workers who all seem not to give a fuck about anything at all. I told myself that I'd run away if they tried putting me in that tent place. Luckily they didn't.

After being instructed to stand near the van in 3 different places, I'm finally escorted into a packed waiting room which is also full of sickly people milling about aimlessly, causing ruckus and of course staring at me. I was wearing a mask, but still made a useless attempt to maintain distance from others.

After waiting around for a few minutes I'm escorted back outside and toward another building altogether. There I'm instructed to wait outside, which is a good thing since that, too, is the wrong building. After stopping at two more buildings and walking around the spit drenched roads,  we finally arrive at the place where I'll be made to stay overnight.

While entering the building and walking up the stairs, the first thing I notice is that the paan spit isn't reserved for outdoor areas, and even the halls of this medical building are covered in the distinct red stains seen everywhere else in India. It's not a good sign but I have no other choice really since it was announced that anyone who doesn't go to the hospital when instructed has committed a crime.

Americans are fools who follow laws. In retrospect, it may have been wiser to just come back to USA.

So finally I get to the second floor, known as the first floor in India, and take a seat on a bench. A man comes out who I assume is a doctor and asks me a lot of questions as well as takes my heart rate. I ask if he's gonna take my temperature and his response is something like "No, we don't do anything like that here" which doesn't give me any confidence at all.

I'm eventually taken to an area with rooms full of beds which I guess is the quarantine area. It's across the hall from the "infectious disease ward" but itself isn't labeled. 

Upon entering the room, the first thing I notice is that the sheets on my bed are stained, and that the attached tray has a bunch of pieces of rice on it, which means it wasn't only not disinfected, but hadn't even been wiped clean of food. Strewn about the floor are wrappers and the packages from bandages, swabs and other medical paraphernalia, and like many things in less important sectors of Indian society, things were generally disorganized and broken. 

After a few minutes the doctor comes back to tell me that I will be tested for corona in the morning and that I should sleep, so I decide to get up to use the restroom, and make my way down the hall to find what was maybe the most concerning thing about this already frightening adventure I'd been on.

The restroom I'd been instructed to use is a squat toilet that looks as though it's never been cleaned, and has no toilet paper or one of those ass sprayers that are becoming common, but instead has the old style tap and bucket, meaning that the people in the quarantine (which luckily was only me at that point) are supposed to clean their ass with water and their bare hand.

The handleless door had that appearance of something decades old with layers upon layers of filth that had been smeared and scraped in every direction a millions of times. Filth which in this case is mostly fecal matter. Thank God I only had to pee and did my best not to touch the door.

I left and searched in vain for a place to wash my hands. There was no sink, no soap. Nothing in that hall but a really dirty bottle of hand sanitizer near the door of my quarantined room.

Not only until the next morning did I find in the same hallway another restroom with a western style toilet and a sink to wash my hands. The problem with that one was that it, too, had no toilet paper, ass sprayer or even bucket and water tap, and on top of that, the toilet had no seat and the water was literally black.

Around 3 in the morning some random dudes came into the quarantine, since I guess the security guard decided to go elsewhere, and asked me "koi aya?" (has anyone come).  I attempted to tell them that I had no clue wtf they were talking about, and after a minute or so they realized that yes, I was indeed foreign and that they should stand, stare and talk about me for a while before leaving.

I went back to sleep.

Around 7 or so the doctor-ish guy returns and says he'll give me a test, but not for corona. I'm told that due to my long stay in that city and no exposure to any known cases, I'm not eligible and I'll instead be tested for bird flu, swine flu and all that other stuff.

They send me to another doctor who gives me some meds for plain pneumonia and I go back home to the room I was renting. Later after a lot of hard work, I find some phone numbers online of alumni from the medical college, and get a number to retrieve my test results, which are negative. No swine flu. Awesome. 

I decide when I get to my room that I need to leave India, but surprisingly not due to the chaos, but because I felt bad for my wife being in USA alone, and I knew that any plans I had were not gonna work at that time. Booked my tickets the next day, and good thing I did. My flight was the last Air India flight out of the city, and for reasons nobody ever told me, they confiscated my documents and I almost wasn't able to get on the flight. 

Before I left I started to feel the tribal tension and famous racism of India starting to build up. Kids in the neighborhood who once wanted to be around me every day were now looking at me weird, fat women on the street were pointing at me and saying "corona corona!" and in one market the shop owners were saying that I came to India just to spread the virus.

My hosts said that neighbors started coming to their house asking about me and saying I had to leave, never mind the fact that a local singer was suspected of attending parties about a mile from where I was staying while she unknowingly had corona and potentially spreading it to many other celebrities and politicians. No, it's the foreigners who are doing it! Even if I'd had it, it'd be from Indians since I was there from before corona.

But whatever. People are idiots.

Now I'm reading about foreigners being kicked out of their hotels and rented homes all over India, and them and their children being spit on, pelted with stones and attacked at random on the streets.  Nobody is really talking about it anywhere, as can be expected. Meanwhile mindless Americans are crying about the word "kung flu" and making bad jokes international news.

Anyway, I'm back home. Self quarantined. Feeling good. Making music. I feel lucky. Things could be a lot worse for me.

As for India, if that disease catches on, they have no way to stop it. Whatever assurances the government is giving are hollow. Police beating poor people on the street will do nothing but cause riots which are already happening anyway. It's sort of like their disastrous "demonetization" failure all over again, except about 1000 times worse. In that one, foreigners were being groped and molested at the ATM machines and banks, but not kicked out onto the streets and attacked by mobs. 

In a lot of ways I really love that place, and many of my favorite people live there, but it'll probably be my last trip to India. I saw a side that I don't want to see more of. 

Good luck to everyone there, and be well, Brian.

Comments

[j]

More on the Gurinder video, and using deras for CV centers.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/govt-mulls-turning-religious-centres-into-quarantine-facilities-120040201333_1.html

[Sonia]

Well, if our hospitals and doctors are struggling as much as they are this side, then any third world country will have an even more difficult time.

The US is supposed to be the leader of the free world and yet COVID-19 has turned our medical communities into a M.A.S.H. war zone.

••••••••••

“New York City officials are looking to the hotel industry to increase hospital bed capacity.

At least 20 hotels have signed contracts with the city in recent days, all part of an effort to convert hotel rooms into additional hospital space as the city grapples with the coronavirus health crisis, which has sickened thousands and killed hundreds of New Yorkers.”

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/04/01/coronavirus-in-nyc-update-hotels-to-be-converted-into-additional-hospital-space

••••••••••

“ There is a coronavirus ward in tents in Central Park. A makeshift hospital has been set up in a Manhattan convention center. Over the next few weeks, spaces including pro tennis courts, college dorms and a cruise ship terminal are supposed to start housing patients as New York state races to roughly triple its hospital capacity.

And still, officials worry whether the massive effort will be enough in the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.”

https://apnews.com/d859f6585165df047e74cc03f35d7c46

••••••••••

Good luck rest of the world... China and the US with all of their technology, strong infrastructure and medical expertise have been brutally battered by C19 and it’s just getting started. We’re anticipating our biggest spike in numbers to happen in a few weeks.

Just pray the citizens of “less fortunate” countries have inherited a stronger immune system.

[Meditator]

It must be a Govt hospital with free consultancy and subsidized medicines which is meant to cater the general public especially the poor. In a scenario when mostly the private doctors and their clinics are shut the burden is felt by the Govt hospitals. Hence the extra patient turn out is making a worse facility into worst.

None can help except God. Pray that despite such a state of facility in India mostly the outbreak may get contained sooner, my Lord. And so be it around the World. Its getting extremely pathetic each day.

[Ron Snider]

I am curious ... what Indian city was that hospital in .... and would you mind naming the hospital?

Thanks !

[One Initiated]

This is a scene of govt. run hospital.

In India the govt. healthcare services do not work the way it is in US and many other nations.
This person surely didn't want to spend money and so he got what he paid (didn't pay) for.

I frequent the private hospitals in India and they are very neat and clean and hygienic just the way you would expect from a hospital.

But the point of your post Brian, yes India is going to be in severe crisis if the community out break happens. Majority of people here just can not afford a decent healthcare service at privately run hospitals - they will rush to these govt. hospitals and they simply are not capable to handle it.

So far the lockdown is really helping India to deal with this tough situation and actually that's the only possible solution in India and I think in other nations as well!
Most likely the lockdown is going to get extended even after 14th April because there is simply no other way, removing the lockdown will be a suicide for India.

[Rob]

Ooops do I calculate right basis numbers as of 4th April

USA:

Cases. 277467
Death. 7402
% mortality. 2.67%

India:

Cases. 2567
Deaths. 72
% mortality. 2.80%

[Sonia]

Ooops do I calculate right basis numbers as of 4th April

USA:

Cases. 277467
Death. 7402
% mortality. 2.67%

India:

Cases. 2567
Deaths. 72
% mortality. 2.80%

Posted by: Rob | April 03, 2020 at 09:15 PM

Mortality rate is about the same, but these numbers and the different models are so difficult to interpret because we don’t know how many people are being tested.

Overall, India is doing better possibly due to a few unique factors (similar to why many African countries are seeing lower numbers); respiratory disease immunizations and history of malaria treatment programs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4001331/

Interestingly, years ago Bill and Melinda Gates set a goal to eradicate malaria worldwide. In the countries hardest hit by malaria there seem to be less cases of C19. But of course, that’s an anecdotal observation at best and time will tell what course the corona virus takes.

Sometimes I wonder why we don’t get just as alarmist over illnesses like malaria and seasonal flu.

2019 Malaria Stats show countries hardest hit (which coincidentally have lower cases of COVID-19): https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/world-malaria-report-2019

These are crazy numbers, but it’s Africa so no one seems to care...

“There were about 155 million malaria cases in the 11 high burden to high impact (HBHI) countries in 2018, compared with 177 million in 2010. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria accounted for 84 million (54%) of total cases.”

[Sonia]

Government hospitals in South Africa are on par with Government hospitals in India. When I was in South Africa and had to go to the hospital I learned all about it. Private care was amazing. Truly exceptional. Whereas, government run hospitals were barely adequate at best. If you stay in an SA gov’t hospital you have to buy your own blankets and food. They don’t provide blankets. Not sure what they provide other than staff and medicines.

You think India is weird but it’s almost surreal describing life in South Africa where there has been a 1st world / 3rd world quality of life running parallel for decades... maybe even a few centuries. The townships can barely keep Corona beer in stock because the Africans aren’t having to work (21 day lockdown) and are celebrating calling it the White man’s disease. (Maybe there’s a little truth in that.)

[Rob]

Mortality rate is about the same, but these numbers and the different models are so difficult to interpret because we don’t know how many people are being tested.

Posted by: Sonia | April 03, 2020 at 10:58 PM

One may argue India isn't testing enough. So what does this mean? Number of cases underreported??

Can't underreport the number of deaths ya. And each death certificate has the cause. Difficult to fudge number of deaths due to corona. India am sure isn't like China. Enough Modi haters and baiters. I believe it's called the Lutyens gang - still very powerful.

[Rob]

And is it that nobody wants to put up a blog about the pathetic handling of Covid19 by the USA?

[Sonia]

And is it that nobody wants to put up a blog about the pathetic handling of Covid19 by the USA?

Posted by: Rob | April 04, 2020 at 12:03 AM

Ummm... I watch CNN more than I should these days and if you need someone to tell you how pathetically the US is handling COVID-19, they are in total agreement with you.

[Sonia]

I’m not a “Modi hater”. Far from it.

Like I said, there may be some truth in the Africans’ saying “Corona is a White man’s disease”. I say that in the sense that all the predominantly White democratic countries have been ravaged by COVID-19.

India just might emerge as one of the strongest democracies in the world after this pandemic has finally made its exit.

[Sonia]

Maybe “ravaged” isn’t the right word. I should have said “hardest hit”.

USA, Europe, Canada, and Australia are the biggest hot spots right now.

[Jesse May]

"And is it that nobody wants to put up a blog about the pathetic handling of Covid19 by the USA?"

Rob, you sensitive little child, there are 1000's of blogs about America's handling and mishandling of coronavirus. I recently saw a meme that said "The internet proves that lack of access to information is proven not to be the cause of human stupidity." Poignant! You have all the information in the world in your hand, but you can't be bothered to access it. It's miraculous.

"Can't underreport the number of deaths ya. And each death certificate has the cause. Difficult to fudge number of deaths due to corona."

As for death tolls, under/over/misreporting are standard. Does anyone actually die from coronavirus itself anyway? They die from any other number of things that corona may or may not exacerbate from what I can tell. Which is why a child recently who was already almost dead in the hospital from non-corona reasons gets it and dies but the preexisting conditions aren't blamed, and in the reverse, a thousand people may die at home from fevers and other common flu symptoms which came from the coronavirus, but nobody's gonna test them after death, especially if they're older, so we'll never know cause.

If you think any of the numbers about corona are accurate anywhere in the world, you're not paying attention to anything. This is the most chaotic situation and basically everyone has a vested interest and reports what they want to believe. This includes hospitals, governments and international health orgs. Death certificates mean nothing, especially in India where nobody even gets a death certificate or an autopsy, and the ones that are provided are notoriously inaccurate as has been reported recently.

Modi is an idiot by the way, but just not for his being a hardcore nationalist as most people say. He's an incompetent man in a position he's absolutely unqualified for. He makes Trump at his worst moments look like a mastermind.

[j]

"And is it that nobody wants to put up a blog about the pathetic handling of Covid19 by the USA?"

I guess. But it's because the people who say it's pathetic don't seem willing to say how or why it's pathetic.
These are the same people who cried "xenophobia" when travel was closed off to China and Europe.

I find it ironic that the xenophobia criers -- who just last month said social distancing was just an expression of racism -- are now the people who feel they have the moral high ground.

[Sonia]

I now believe “How to Handle a Pandemic” is a far more decisive issue than religion or politics.

Who knew... I guess it’s the fear factor. Seems everyone’s blaming the different governments and other countries.

[Sonia]

*Divisive (I swear I corrected that but autocorrect won)

awtoqirekt

[Rob]

Rob, you sensitive little child, there are 1000's of blogs about America's handling and mishandling of coronavirus. I recently saw a meme that said "The internet proves that lack of access to information is proven not to be the cause of human stupidity." Poignant! You have all the information in the world in your hand, but you can't be bothered to access it. It's miraculous.

Posted by: Jesse May | April 04, 2020 at 06:54 AM

Direct this to the one who felt ONE FOREIGNER's tale is worth a mention in here when there is more than enough shit to write about his own country and a few dozen or more.

You were in India too right. LoL. Your non existent ability to pick up sarcasm isn't a well kept secret.

[Rob]

Modi is an idiot by the way, but just not for his being a hardcore nationalist as most people say. He's an incompetent man in a position he's absolutely unqualified for. He makes Trump at his worst moments look like a mastermind.

Posted by: Jesse May | April 04, 2020 at 06:54 AM

LoL!!!!!!! Easter is fast approaching - am sure under the mastermind, USA is gonna have a ball this Easter. Do post how you celebrated Easter ya. The mastermind is the best person to handle the pandemic. Afterall his uncle was a professor at MIT.

Did you know the mastermind has started on his ex-president venture. Here is it for your benefit.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSXZ-1TShQ

[Brian Hines]

Here's a message I got from the person who had this scary experience in India:
----------------------------------
In the comments some people are saying that it's a government hospital that I went to, which is true. But what they're ignorant of is the fact that all covid patients must go to the same hospitals. There is no private place you're allowed to go.

When you're considered as someone who might have the virus you don't get a choice but are assigned the places the government has set up specifically for coronavirus diagnosis and treatment. The vast, vast majority of Indians use only government hospitals so they're the only relevant thing to consider in the case of corona spreading.

Also, I've been to private hospitals in India, some of the best ones, and anyone saying that they're as good as western ones is either a liar or doesn't know what they're talking about because they've never been to a western facility. The private places in India are basically the same low quality doctors in expensive rooms with better equipment, floor tiles and lights.

Aside from the shabby and unhygienic facilities themselves, most doctors in India do not ask the most basic questions about if one is currently on any medications already or if the patient has allergies to any medicines. I was nearly dying of dehydration and fever once and a "great" doctor at an Apollo Hospital in Delhi didn't even take my temperature.

Their negligence alone results in many deaths which aren't tracked because it's the 3rd world and they're basically lawless and the population is aware of it enough that they routinely attack private hospitals in mobs as revenge for doctors negligence. The lack of professionalism extends to foreign doctors in USA being overrepresented in malpractice as well, but that's another topic altogether.

[Sonia]

Private or public, India isn’t one of the leading, primarily white democracies in this world (which this insidious virus seems hellbent on destroying).

I think COVID-19 is racist. 😂 But it’s probably about time... we’re not so innocent.

[Sonia]

Despite the writer’s unfortunate trip to the hospital in India, actually might have been a wise move for him to be searching for investment properties in India.

[Rob]

Here's a message I got from the person who had this scary experience in India:

Posted by: Brian Hines | April 04, 2020 at 11:01 AM

Brian,

Since when have you turned someone's spokesperson?

Teach him how to post directly. Or is it that this individual doesn't have the balls to post directly that he/she routes it through you?

[Sonia]

@Rob

You live in India, right? Which part? Are the private hospitals in your area taking only non-Covid19 patients?

[Brian Hines]

Rob, I got a private message from this person that was directed only to me. I found it interesting, so asked the person if I could share part of the message as a comment. I was the one who wanted to do this, so I posted the comment under my name. To quote me, 'It's my blog, and I can do what I want with it."

[j]

Another Westerner kisses the tarmac after his sojourn East. I can relate.

I received excellent medical care while in Asia (Thailand). In many ways medical care there is better than in the West. You want to see a doctor, you see him that day. If surgery is necessary, you get surgery tomorrow. The costs are a fraction of what you'd pay in the West, and there's far less of the rigamarole. I was going to the private hospitals, but my friends who received public care said it was also very good. Also, I was told that there's less risk of infection because the Eastern hospitals can afford to staff people to clean and clean and clean. Probably much of the healthcare dollar over there goes directly to the doctors without a huge chunk siphoned off by insurers and lawyers as is the practice in the states.

About 10 years ago there was much buzz about India being the best place for medical tourism. Best prices, and best care. Frankly, I was a bit skeptical and I guess rightfully so.

[Jesse May (the name has a ring to it!)]

"I find it ironic that the xenophobia criers -- who just last month said social distancing was just an expression of racism -- are now the people who feel they have the moral high ground."

J, it's also interesting to note that those same criers never mention the policies or actions of non-"Western" people and governments. When China sealed its borders to all foreigners, and even started repatriating foreigners nobody had much to say about it. Nobody has ever said anything about the fact that China has never let a non Chinese person become a citizen, either. That one is pretty big, but I guess hypocrisy rules us all.

I should correct my statement about Modi from earlier. It's quite possible that he's not an idiot, and is in fact a political genius, but if that's so, his genius failed to anticipate some pretty mass scale and predictable disasters such as the fallout from the demonetization which yielded precisely zero results, yet left a stain of violence and suffering behind. We'll see what happens with the lockdown they're doing in India. A lot of easily predictable disasters waiting to happen there,too. But he kind of preemptively apologized for some of that already. He's an inspirational nationalist regardless.

[Rob]

To quote me, 'It's my blog, and I can do what I want with it."

Posted by: Brian Hines | April 04, 2020 at 01:13 PM

Ofcourse!!! And it shows; ironically by what's not put up on the blog.

And it's normal for people to easily forget that they can do what they want with what's theirs only until it exists.

So enjoy the party......

[One Initiated]

Some stats for those unaware:

Area of India: 3.287 million km²
Population of India: 133.92 crores
Area of USA: 9.834 million km²
Population of USA: 32.72 crores

It's so congested everywhere, just everywhere. There is really no open space in India, if you want to experience the experience in open space and hygienic environment in schooling, residence, healthcare - it will come with a premium.

Well, who to blame for this population explosion? Indians only. And this has to get right!
Realistically not only healthcare, it's a tough situation to manage any public infrastructure in India.

However, these are non-equilibriums which co-exist in this world. At this time of the pandemic COVID19 when every nation is struggling to find an exit, helping each other as much as they can, the last thing one would do is compare and disgust the other nations and it's infrastructures.

"The private places in India are basically the same low quality doctors in expensive rooms with better equipment, floor tiles and lights."
Wow, what do you even mean by low quality doctors? This line speaks volumes about the maturity level of the person.

The need of the hour is to have positive attitude towards the earth as a whole and not to be egoistic of your personal good things.

Back to the point you raised, I think that's an old news.
Select private hospitals have already been granted permissions to admit and treat people for COVID19 I think from 26-27 march onwards only after inspection by the authorities to assert if the facility at the hospital is capable of providing isolation wards.
Also select private diagnostic labs have also been given permissions to carry out the tests.

[Rob]

Are the private hospitals in your area taking only non-Covid19 patients?

Posted by: Sonia | April 04, 2020 at 12:06 PM

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/26-private-medical-colleges-112-private-hospitals-can-treat-covid-19-patients/article31259916.ece/amp/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/andhra-pradesh-to-take-over-private-hospitals-to-tackle-covid-19/amp_articleshow/74922440.cms

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/private-hospitals-in-the-city-open-isolation-wards-for-covid-19-patients/story-iz2gksFmSC1YhfMrHNSomK_amp.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/covid-19-testing-treatment-free-for-ayushman-bharat-beneficiaries-at-pvt-labs-empanelled-hospitals/amp_articleshow/74986228.cms

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.timesofindia.com/city/chennai/112-private-hospitals-across-tamil-nadu-to-treat-covid-19-patients/amp_articleshow/74989888.cms

Want some more @sonia?? These are a few results of an internet search 'private hospitsls for covid india'

Fact check - what a foreign concept to One Foreigner.

[Rob]

About 10 years ago there was much buzz about India being the best place for medical tourism. Best prices, and best care. Frankly, I was a bit skeptical and I guess rightfully so.

Posted by: j | April 04, 2020 at 06:51 PM

Care to provide some current dope on India: medical tourism industry. I don't suppose anybody is interested about some 10 year ago buzz.

Thanks

[Joe L]

"And it's normal for people to easily forget that they can do what they want with what's theirs only until it exists."

That has got to be one of the all time meaningless comments in the history of the internet.

[Rob]

"And it's normal for people to easily forget that they can do what they want with what's theirs only until it exists."

That has got to be one of the all time meaningless comments in the history of the internet.

Posted by: Joe L | April 05, 2020 at 05:09 AM

Really.... Maybe its time for a version upgrade Joe for it's obvious you didn't get the message(implied).

😂🤣

[Rob]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news18.com/amp/news/india/as-india-bans-export-of-hydroxycloroquine-trump-requests-modi-to-send-game-changer-drug-to-us-2565409.html

Poor mastermind Trump requests the idiot Modi (that's what a few in here have referred to him as) to lift the export ban on Hydroxychloraquine.

Gosh the country with best medical facilities and drug companies - wants medicines from Indian manufacturers. What did a few in here have to say about Indian drug companies and the stuff they manufactured????

@jesse why is the mastermind Trump wasting his time with an idiot?. Looking forward to your cutting insights on this too.

I am keeping the demonitisation for some other time.

[Sonia]

@Rob

We don’t do much manufacturing here in the US. That is no secret and Corporate America has off-shored for decades to save money/increase profits. This is something we are now paying the price for. We may have some of the best medical facilities, pharma companies and medical experts in the world, but US Corporations have made a great deal of their fortune by taking advantage of cheap labor in China, India, and a host of other countries to manufacture products.

Now it’s time for us to pay the pied piper.

[Rob]

@Rob

We don’t do much manufacturing here in the US. That is no secret and Corporate America has off-shored for decades to save money/increase profits. This is something we are now paying the price for. We may have some of the best medical facilities, pharma companies and medical experts in the world, but US Corporations have made a great deal of their fortune by taking advantage of cheap labor in China, India, and a host of other countries to manufacture products.

Now it’s time for us to pay the pied piper.

Posted by: Sonia | April 05, 2020 at 12:13 PM

Sorry to break this to you, but here we are talking of home grown Indian pharma companies and not Indian operations of some US or Global Pharmas.

And that your FDA stinks is clear from this linked article.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livemint.com/companies/news/covid-19-us-fda-partially-lifts-import-ban-on-ipca-labs-for-chloroquine-supply/amp-11584803485932.html

Surely no Americans would want to pop pills manufactured by a company slapped with multiple violation of good manufacturing practices. It's time Americans never ever forget the scary tale of this one foreigner published in here.

Time to crucify that Mastermind Trump too? LoL

[Sonia]

@Rob

You act is if the only person on this planet you don’t hate is PM Modi. Seriously, what is your problem? Why are you so anti-American, anti-Muslim, anti-humanity.

Do you have any family or friends??