These days, social media posts in India are no longer about cheeky photos, funny memes or political jokes. Instead, frantic calls to save lives are flooding Twitter and Instagram as the latest wave of coronavirus cases and deaths overwhelm the nation’s hospitals and crematoriums.
On Bharath Pottekkat’s Instagram feed, one message screams "Mumbai please help! Lungs damaged due to pneumonia infection. In need of ICU bed.” Another reads "Plasma urgently required for treatment of Covid patient in Max Hospital, Delhi.” More follow. "Urgently needed Tocilizumab injection. Please DM if you know of stock in and around Mumbai.”
New appeals land with every refresh. "My brain can’t handle the social media overload,” said Pottekkat, a 20-year-old Delhi law student. "I can’t process what I’m reading. I feel numb.”