EDITORIAL : With the second wave of COVID-19, the country is mired in an epidemic. More than 8,600 infections and 58 deaths have been confirmed since the epidemic began on Wednesday, confirming the gravity of the situation. But this terrible situation did not come in a day or a week. This condition was predictable. Today’s situation is due to the government’s inability to use the opportunity to plan adequately for epidemic control for seven months in the face of declining infection and zero mortality in November and December last year.

In fact, when the government’s attention was diverted from epidemic control, the total death toll rose from 829 seven months ago to nearly three and a half thousand people. This overall scenario is no different than an example of a self-proclaimed socialist government playing on public health.

In the seven months before the onset of the second phase of the epidemic, the government did not prioritize the provision of medical beds, manpower and oxygen in hospitals. The government has been busy promoting cheap propaganda that all the problems have been solved with the distribution of 1 million doses of vaccines provided by India and 800,000 doses provided by China. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli himself announced that all citizens would be vaccinated within three months without the necessary vaccine import planning. But the Prime Minister’s announcement proved to be false due to the dirty game of the commissioners inside his cell.

The fact that Suraj Vaidya and Vijay Dugad, the businessmen known to be close to the Prime Minister, have been the main obstacle in bringing the remaining 1 million doses of vaccine, which has already been paid in advance to the Serum Institute of Vaccine Manufacturers in India, has been made public. It is not only ironic but also a matter of national shame that the Prime Minister could not take any action even after Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi himself made a public statement that vaccine import was stopped as he did not pay 10 percent commission to the local agent. Hukum Enterprises, which is registered and operating according to the prevailing Nepali law, lobbied the Serum Institute and the Indian Govt. system to get commission, but the government remained the only watchdog.

It is no coincidence that the government, which witnessed the omnipotence of the Omni group in the first phase of the epidemic, remained silent even when the same issue was repeated in vaccine imports. The person in the government himself or some invisible characters in his cage are running this dirty politics on the vaccine. Doesn’t the protracted situation make it clear that the government could not be more dishonest to the people?

Even if health awareness, including physical distance and behavior change, puts a stop to the spread of the epidemic, the only way to end the ongoing epidemic is to vaccinate. Globally, countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel, which have experienced the peak of the epidemic, have controlled the epidemic by vaccinating the majority of their citizens. However, now it is not possible to import vaccines only from commercial basis like 4-5 months ago. It is difficult to imagine that India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, would allow vaccine exports when it itself is mired in an epidemic. If the government itself takes a high-level diplomatic initiative from the level of the Prime Minister, it will not be difficult to import vaccines from countries like China and Russia.But for this, the Prime Minister himself should be careful not to allow the disgusting politics of vaccinating the visible and invisible characters to take place.

Moreover, the Prime Minister and the ruling party should be freed from the self-centered thinking of linking vaccination with domestic politics and the age of power as a tool of geopolitical maneuvering. Every step taken to control the cobweb, which has become a global epidemic even within a minute of being in power, saves the lives of the people. There can be no greater task and responsibility for the government than that. Naturally, the government is in the minority at the moment. It can change at any time. Another government may come or this government can also get a majority.

That should be nothing more than a regular act within politics. The main task is to import the vaccine and make it accessible to the people in an all-accessible way for the control of COVID, which has become a global epidemic and is seriously affecting Nepal. For that, the government must at least separate the purchase and import of vaccines from the genocidal mafia and political criminal agents.