Drugs maybe cheap, but hospitals hard to find.

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ended its emergency use authorization for two coronavirus treatments touted by President Donald Trump, citing lack of evidence of efficacy." The two treatments are chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and it was done on the advice of Gary Disbrow, acting director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development authority (BARDA), which is an interface between the US government and the biomedical industry. There is great opposition to the use of hydroxychloroquine, a cheap drug, used very safely for years in autoimmune diseases, because of the highs stakes for Remdesivir, "a new-on-the-block prohibitively expensive, patent-protected antiviral agent", wrote Maj Gen (Dr) VK Singh. "Business interest is prime mover, researchers can act in complicit, and at times active, collaboration out of both need and greed. It is now cancerous." Meanwhile, "Indian patients have started importing Remdesivir from Bangladesh, even as domestic companies await the drug controller's clearance to begin local manufacturing." In India, "What should be clear now is that state governments do not want people to be tested. Doctors and labs have been sent the message," wrote Sandipan Deb. "What's going on is that states are in competition to flatten the number-of-cases curve." "Meanwhile, bodies are stacking up in hospital morgues and crematoriums and graveyards cannot cope with the rush." Although the number of cases are still rising the rate seems to have decreased and the mortality rate remains low. News of people dying after being refused admission into hospital is being reported abroad. A few days back the Delhi government reprimanded a few private hospitals for testing asymptomatic patients to prevent shortage of testing kits. Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal directed hospitals not to treat patients from outside the capital but was overruled by the Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal who was appointed by the Cetral government. When a total lockdown was declared with a 4 hour notice on 24 May, millions of migrant laborers were suddenly caught in cities far away from their villages without jobs or money. 85% of these people had to pay for their journey home with whatever money they had left. Those that could not find or afford transport walked hundreds of miles to get back to their home villages, often dying on the way. Now a lot of the same people want to return to their old jobs because of the threat of hunger as there are no jobs in villages and because 67% of farms are below 1 hectare and so cannot support extended families. Fortunately, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has no stake in Remdesivir and recommends judicious use of hydroxychloroquine. However, all this is relevant only if people can be tested and admitted to hospitals. And, that is not assured.