Introduction 3 Executive Summary 5 Chapter 1 Second Round of Survey : Data Analysis 10 Chapter 2 Comparative Analysis (2020 and 2021) 37 Chapter 3 A Discourse on Pandemic Viruses and Vaccines -PVS Kumar 60 Chapter 4 Persisting Socio-economic Crisis: COVID-19 Lays Bare the Social Fault Lines1 - Prof. Arun Kumar 96 Annexure 1 113 Annexure 2 120 Annexure 2a 129 Index 1 The Second Pulse of the Pandemic : A Sudden Surge in Scientic Temper during the Covid-19 Crisis © Anhad 2021 Acknowledgement : PM Bhargava Foundation We are thankful to the following for helping us collect the data : Bhavesh Bariya Bhavna Sharma Deshdeep Dhankar Dev Desai Farida Khan Farhat Khan Jagori Rural Manish Kumar Ray Manisha Trivedi Mukhtar Shaikh Nazneen Shaikh Published by : Printed by : Pullshoppe 9810213737 2 Introduction Scientific community rises to the occasion Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), after mutation, found a new host, the human cell, and comfortably multiplied itself. Used human cells as copying machines and made millions of copies in nasal cavities, throats and lungs at times in human eyes, which could survive in aerosols and various surfaces for more than 72 hours. The human bodies proved to be secured habitable housing colonies, which not only offered environment for its multiplication within the body at an exponential rate but also helped it to travel all over the globe. Within human cells it also mutated, changed in shape and content, and became extra virulent, which made it extremely difficult to suppress or impede its propagation. Evidently, the virus showed no signs of leaving the newfound housing complexes in a hurry. Most of the time human bodies successfully resisted this invasion. However, in cases where the viruses won the battle of survival, curiously, in a zeal to multiply it damage the host to such an extent that hosts become unliveable. The survival strategy of almost all pathogens includes 'infect other bodies even before symptoms of invasion have appeared in the host'. This evasive strategy of SARS-CoV-2 immensely helped it to survive and multiply in human bodies. Under the load of the resulting pandemic, the health care system, human defence mechanisms built against diseases, crumbled and millions died. Panic and hopelessness loomed large. In these times of utter helplessness only science provided the rays of hope. Scientific community rose to the occasion, scrutinised shape, size, and properties of the covid-19 causing virus, modes, and nature of its replication within human cells, parts of the body where it breeds, symptoms of the diseases it causes, the duration of incubation period, medium through which it is transmitted, protective measures which can reduce its impact and finally invented vaccine, which helps the immune system to resist its invasion. Experts working in public health used predictive statistical models, mapped the progression. They warned politicians and policy makers that the pandemic will spread in waves and reduction of the number of cases does not indicate demise of the virus. Virus in India The first confirmed case of Covid-19 infection in India was reported on January 27, 2020. Initially the country witnessed slow progression of the number of new cases but soon it gained momentum and the so-called first wave reached its peak by mid-September 2020, with almost 100 thousand reported cases. The data officially released by the government of India always remained suspect. A study carried out by a team of experts of University of Chicago and Duke university estimated 'that Karnataka alone had approximately 31.5 million cases of COVID-19 ---, relative to 8 million reported nationally in India' by August 2020. After August 2020, the curve showed a definite downward trend. The second wave of mass infection, far more intense, virulent Perappadaan BS., in The Hindu. (January 30, 2020) India's first coronavirus infection confirmed in Kerala https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/india/ UChicago News. (February 5. 2021). COVID-19 cases in India underreported by over 20 million, study says 3 and deadly, hit Indian population in mid-March 2021. Evidently, Covid-19 crisis hit India each time with a sufficiently long lag period compared to other countries. China, Italy and many other European and developing countries were already dealing with the pandemic much before the first wave hit India. Indian government refused to read the writing on the wall and the country was allowed to plunge into crisis. There was sufficient experience, evidence and scientific literature available to take preventive and curative actions. The second wave also caught them as unprepared as the first one. Organising huge religious gatherings and political rallies was a criminal negligence which led to the death of hundreds of thousands. Ordinary citizens were left to fend for themselves. People had to face lack of oxygen, non-availability of bed in the hospitals, black marketing of essential drugs, fake news, and onslaught of superstitions. In times of fear, helplessness and death ordinary citizens proactively collect the latest usable scientific information to deal with the crisis. To test and validate the hypothesis that the receptivity of even convoluted scientific information among the people goes up by many notches, it shapes the perceptions and leads to attitudinal changes, we carried out two rounds of opinion surveys among the Indian population. One of the objectives of the study is to probe if the crisis-knowledge generation-perceptions-attitude cascade leads to a new normal or else the attitudinal changes taper off once the crisis is over. Present Report The present report is based on the opinion survey carried out during the first and second waves of the pandemic. During the first wave data was collected through online and offline questionnaire, which contained close and open-ended questions. During the second round we decided to collect data only through online questionnaire. The gap between the two rounds was one year. During the first round of survey, which was administered in May 2020, after data cleaning 2223 filled-in questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis, this number was 2243 in the second round of data collection in 2021. The first chapter of the report deals with the statistical analysis and concluding remarks based on the dataset collected during 10th to 25th of May 2021. The second chapter presents comparative analysis of the responses and shifts in knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes among the Indian public. Chapter three gives a detailed account of the debate around the pandemic. It also delineates salient features of the discourse on vaccines, their production and procurement processes and the vaccination campaigns. This chapter has been contributed by Dr PVS Kumar. The shock wave of the pandemic has intensely impacted the international as well as national economy. The fourth chapter contributed by Prof. Arun Kumar, in great depth, discusses how panicked governments failed to deal with emerging economic crisis and added to the peoples' misery. It also deals with short term and long-term factors which will keep on influencing the economic development of the country. Appendix-I gives and overviews of the first round of data analysis and conclusions which were presented in the first report entitled 'Pulse of the Pandemic, A sudden Surge in Scientific Temper During Covid-19 Crisis'. Leena Dabiru has once again collated reported myths, superstition, fear and panic which were circulated among the public during the second wave which are given in Annexure-2 and 2a. Raza G. et al. (2020). Pulse of the Pandemic, A sudden Surge in Scientific attitude During Covid-19 Crisis. Anhad. New Delhi. 4 Executive Summary The present report is based on the opinion survey carried out during the first and second waves of the pandemic. During the first wave data was collected through online and offline questionnaire, which contained close and open-ended questions. During the second round we decided to collect data only through online questionnaire. The gap between the two rounds was one year. During the first round of survey, which was administered in May 2020, after data cleaning 2223 filled-in questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis, this number was 2243 in the second round of data collection in 2021. The first chapter of the report deals with the statistical analysis and concluding remarks based on the dataset collected during 10th to 25th of May 2021. Date has been collected from 26 states and union territories. Among respondents 55.1 per cent were men and 44.8 per cent were women. It should be admitted that we could not reach out to LGBTQIA community and there were only two respondents from this segment of the society. The intensity of covid-19 pandemic did not permit us to conduct face-to-face interviews and therefore we could not approach those who do not have reading and writing skills. As a result the level of education of the sampled population was quite high with 35.9 per cent graduates and 36.3 percent post-graduates. More than 60 percent of those who responded to the questionnaire trusted the information received through the internet and doctors. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (86.6%) correctly pinpointed the place of origin of the pandemic. 80.2 per cent of the respondents correctly said that Covid was transmitted through bats. An overwhelming percentage of the respondents (78.9%), in answer to the question which is the disease Corona virus causes, identified Pneumonia and Throat infection. 79.2 percent of all the respondents correctly identified the shape of the virus as 'Sphere with spikes'. 84% replied that people can recover after Covid. More than 70 per cent of the respondents said if symptoms appear they will contact a 'Doctor'.