Pulitzer winner writer Thomas Friedman who is also a New York Times columnist spoke at
the E-Conclave corona series and appreciated the steps taken by PM Modi. He said that he has done a great job to prevent the spread of coronavirus but now India has been facing huge economic challenges while stopping the spread of coronavirus.
Thomas Friedman spoke with the director of India today, Rahul Kanwal, and said that
sustaining the lockdown is a challenge for India since the pandemic being a very different
the challenge for every leader.
While making early gains India is facing a huge challenge to balance its economy along with the balancing of the preventive situation of the coronavirus.
This has proved to be a bigger challenge especially for the rural areas where thee are
10,000 people to be cured by one doctor and the people are asked to practice social
distancing when they do not even own another room.
Appreciating the efforts of PM Modi Thomas Friedman said that India will have to go with the herd immunity strategy where large groups of people are exposed to the disease to make them immune to the virus and to come out of the crisis relatively unharmed.
“It seems to me that PM Modi has done a great job in breaking the chain of transmission
initially.however the trick is to get your people to acquire immunity naturally but for those who can handle the virus so that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed,” he said When he was asked how the other leaders are tackling the situation, He said that it is a very different situation for every leader in the world because the enemy is not a human but mother nature herself. “This is a very different situation for every leader. The enemy is not another country or a human to use the terms win and loose. America was able to win WW2 by out mobilizing and out manufacturing Nazi Germany and Japanese. But mother nature as a foe is different you can’t win against her.”
“The goal is not to defeat her but to adapt to her . she rewards not the winner or loser but the one who is able to adapt to her. Every country has a huge challenge of adaptation before it.
Sweden went for the herd immunity while other countries went ahead with lockdown and
phase exits. It is too early to say who has won” Thomas added
So far more than 30 lakh people have been affected with coronavirus and it has claimed
more than 2 lakh lives around the globe in a span of just a few months.
