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Dusting off the COVID STIGMA

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Surviving COVID is not easy; it is not just the threat of death and physical suffering, but many other issues that complicates life.

As the COVID outbreak is marching on, many are coming out of the illness and narrating tales of the challenges they had to overcome.

I spoke with RK today, a 30 year bachelor engineer who had consulted me on-line a month ago for symptoms of “acidity”…burning in the abdomen and poor appetite that had been going on for a few months. As he did not improve with the medications and worried about an ulcer, he insisted on getting an endoscopy done even in these COVID times.

Ours, like most hospitals these days, recommend a precautionary pre-endoscopy COVID test to be done a day prior.

The next day, to his surprise and ours, the test came POSITIVE! He was shocked, devastated, and agitated. As he was living alone in a rented apartment in the city, away from parents who stayed 400 km away in another town, he felt very alone and shaken. His cell phone app started flashing red, warning not just him but those around. Soon there were aggressive and angry neighbors calling him on the phone and telling him to go away.

He somehow managed to get away to his hometown, but as his parents were both in their eighties, decided not to put them to risk, preferring to stay in a hotel. But no hotel would let him in. Nor would any friend in his apartment. And the prospect of having to spend 2 weeks in a “detention-like” quarantine center brought other thoughts of desperation to his mind!

He survived the next 14 days like a fugitive. Luckily, his symptoms had been mild to non-existent. And he managed to get a 2nd COVID PCR test done that came negative, delivering him from the stigma and isolation. He is still requiring anti-depressant medications though.

There are several aspects of human nature that COVID has exposed; from courage, heroism, sacrifice and selfless caring to few “ugly” ones.

Many have been shocked by the quickness with whichtheir “close” friends and relatives turned color and shunned them as soon as they heard of the infection. The alarms that went off in neighborhoods and colonies made vigilantes (self-proclaimed as well as officials) swoop down on them with nasty cruel looks as though they had committed a crime!

Self-preservation is one of the strongest human instincts,and when coupled with fear, can make people very ruthless and cruel.

The best thing that probably happened to the British is that their prime minister came down with the infection and got treated by the NHS. I am sure the few Indian politicians who got COVID did not get pulled out of their homes by men in khaki, or had to spend days in large tent-like quarantine dormitories bereft of privacy and dignity.

The fear of COVID in India is not just for one’s life but in equal measure for the harassment and stigma that comes with it.

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