# India on pace to be worst-hit Covid nation by end of 2021 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [July 17, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586 "2020-07-17T15:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Scotty\_the\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Scotty\_the\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scotty_the_Kid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/81 "2021-05-06T01:08:40Z")
Yep,I just read it all. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/82 "2021-05-06T20:31:31Z")
Both @Acsenray and @mandala had some valid points but that’s for another discussion. As to a good source of India related news/analysis, I would recommend [https://theprint.in/](https://theprint.in/). They are supported by subscribers and have a YouTube channel too. There are short reports done by student journalists too. My personal opinion is that theprint.in is more towards the center but it could be just my opinion. Twitter has a lot of trolls, so you would have to build a time tested following before you trust anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/83 "2021-05-07T13:48:21Z")
Priorities, man, priorities! > **[Modi presses ahead with $1.8 billion parliament renovation even as Covid-19...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/06/india/india-modi-parliament-intl-hnk/index.html)** > > While hospitals plead for life-saving oxygen and Covid-19 patients die in their thousands, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing ahead with a $1.8 billion parliamentary revamp -- including a new home for the country's leader. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/84 "2021-05-09T16:14:28Z")
> **[In India’s surge, a religious gathering attended by millions helped the virus...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/08/india-coronavirus-kumbh-mela/)** > > The giant festival was one source of infections as cases skyrocketed, according to local officials, religious leaders and media reports. While many of us expected India to have major problems because it is a poor, densely populated country this is something the government could have taken action on. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/85 "2021-05-10T16:47:31Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > While many of us expected India to have major problems because it is a poor, densely populated country this is something the government could have taken action on. You would just add more events full of rioters without masks. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586/86 "2021-05-14T12:33:46Z")
Reports of suspected COVID fatalities [washing up](https://www.dw.com/en/india-bodies-of-suspected-covid-19-victims-wash-up-on-ganges-riverbanks/a-57489467) on the [banks of the Ganges](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/11/dozens-of-suspected-covid-victims-found-in-indias-ganges). One commentary proposes that stray dogs might feed on these bodies and thereby spread the coronavirus further, but I wonder how viable that transmission route actually is. If the primary mode of transmission is through aerosols produced by respiration, then a dog feeding on a non-breathing corpse has to acquire the virus some other way. Public health experts have dismissed as negligible the possibility of humans getting infected from fomites or food, but little has been said about pets getting infected that way. A [press release from Hong Kong](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202003/26/P2020032600756.htm) in the early months of the pandemic stated that “dogs and cats are not infected easily with this virus, and there is _no evidence that they play a role in the spread of the virus_” (emphasis added). In the 14 months since that Hong Kong press release, the appearance of COVID-19 variants could have rendered the early findings obselete, and stray dogs might well be a viable reservoir for the virus these days. But if they still acquire the virus primarily through breathing in aerosols, it seems overblown to worry about dead bodies becoming part of a stray dog’s diet and thereby passing along the infection via a scavenging host species. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-on-pace-to-be-worst-hit-covid-nation-by-end-of-2021/915586.md?page=4)