Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Infection in India: Expert Opinion without Evidence Leading to Public Health Policy Paralysis

By January 2021, sections of scientific community started to believe that India had overcome the pandemic and acquired herd immunity [1]. In March, 2021 the Indian government cited results from serological surveys and India’s main computer model predicting disease spread in the “endgame” of the pandemic [2]. It was followed by national negligence of social-distancing norms, non-compliance of personal protective measures, mass political and social congregations. Double mutant SARS-CoV-2 virus variant and systemic shortfalls in immunization program emerged as unfortunate and man-made crises respectively. As a result, by August, 2021 India is expected to witness 1 million deaths from CoVID-19 [3].