NL Interview: Tomas Pueyo on combating coronavirus, and where India stands

In this interview with Manisha Pande, Tomas Pueyo talks about India’s battle with the novel coronavirus, the fallout of the lockdown, and how the pandemic is reshaping the world.

Pueyo is an author and Silicon Valley entrepreneur who shot to fame after writing a viral Medium post containing the gravest warnings about Covid-19.

Commenting on the spread of Covid-19 in India, he asks, “Are you testing?” He hypothesizes that the virus “is everywhere already. We just don’t know it.”

Talking about the fatality projections, he asks, “How equipped is India to deal with maybe not 65 million patients, but 30 million, 20 million, 10 million, five million? Nearly all countries are similar, none of them can handle capacity like this.”

He argues that the curve would have to be flattened multiple times for the country’s healthcare system to be able to cope with the pandemic.

Pueyo says governments could use the pretext of containing the spread of the virus to take more control which makes it imperative to hold them accountable.

On how long India’s lockdown would have to remain in place, he says while the shutdown is for just a few weeks, “softer measures” will have to stay in place until we have a vaccine. “Once we have a vaccine, then things are going to be at ease,” he adds.

Tune in!

Editor’s note: This interview was recorded on March 26, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

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