Earth has one thing like a billion species of micro organism, fungi and different microbes, and KK Shailaja was fascinated by every certainly one of them.

To her, they have been like atoms, the actual, tiny issues that make up and maintain the world collectively.

But little did she think about that she would at some point be liable for main the battle in opposition to a shape-shifting, life-threatening virus that may ravage the world and threaten to overrun her house Kerala, a picturesque southern Indian state of 35 million folks.

Fondly often known as “teacher”, Ms Shailaja scripted a uncommon success story in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic because the well being minister of Kerala in 2020, which catapulted her to worldwide fame. The Guardian known as her a “corona slayer”, the Financial Times named her as one of many 12 most influential ladies of 2020. She was invited as a panellist on the UN Public Service Day and the UK’s Prospect Magazine named her as the highest thinker of the Covid age.

Her experiences – of main a state via the pandemic and of rising up in India’s solely Communist state – make the spine of her new political memoir, My Life As A Comrade, which launched on Thursday.

As a physics trainer, scientific considering at all times remained an integral half – a “default position” – to Ms Shailaja’s decision-making course of because the well being minister, she informed the BBC. “In my mind, Covid-19 reaching India was always inevitable and dealing with it was a matter of when, not if,” she says.

But the die-hard Communist in her noticed connections in every part. “In our lush, wooded neighbourhood, superstition, religion and socialism were never at odds; you could believe in all those things at once,” she writes.

Ms Shailaja, who grew up in a small city in Kannur district, says she was deeply impressed by her Ammamma or grandma, a staunch Communist chief who helped deal with a smallpox outbreak in Kerala. Through her Ammamma, she learnt of the methods the Communist celebration tackled worry and misinformation and taught folks find out how to cope with the infectious illness. Ms Shailaja stated she by no means imagined that she would at some point be answerable for doing the identical factor.

In January 2020, Kerala reported India’s first Covid-19 case – a medical pupil who had returned from Wuhan. At the time, coronavirus wasn’t a part of the favored lexicon and hardly anybody was discussing it in India, Ms Shailaja says. But in Kerala, the state authorities had already arrange 18 speedy response groups, opened a management room and deployed medical officers on the state’s 4 airports so that folks might voluntarily declare any signs.

In a pandemic characterised by excessive uncertainty, Ms Shailaja stated the federal government used its Nipah virus protocol – the state had efficiently fought an outbreak in 2018 – “and made changes based on what was already understood about Covid”.

Ms Shailaja stated she had two choices – both permit the virus to unfold so that folks might attain herd immunity. Or, comprise its unfold by detecting circumstances early, tracing contacts and quarantining the contaminated.

She knew a virus like this was lethal not solely as a result of it was extremely transmissible, however as a result of it was able to exploiting a rustic’s underlying shortcomings – a chronically underfunded well being care system, unequal entry, and a dearth of needed security nets.

Kerala fares higher than most states on these indices, however the state is densely populated and 15% of its individuals are over 60 years of age. It can also be majorly uncovered to worldwide journey and has some 17% of its working-age inhabitants employed outdoors, leaving the state weak to outbreaks.

“Containment was the only way forward,” she stated, and the state determined to stay to the playbook of check, hint and isolate.

For some months, Kerala appeared primed to comprise the virus. There have been days when it reported no new circumstances. Testing was widespread, deaths have been low and the well being system – probably the most subtle within the nation – was not overburdened. “We even managed to save people of 98 years of age,” Ms Shailaja stated.

But by mid-July, the state started reporting round 800 infections a day and by November, Kerala had recorded greater than 500,000 infections.

In the summer season of 2021 when a lethal second wave claimed hundreds of lives, Kerala – a state with barely 3% of India’s inhabitants – began accounting for more than half of India’s new cases. Infections surged and confirmed no indicators of abating even because the pandemic waned in different components of the nation – though the loss of life charge remained low.

As the state floundered at controlling the virus, criticism in opposition to its authorities mounted.

Experts stated Kerala’s contact tracing mechanism, which had been its sturdy level in the course of the first wave, had not proven the identical efficacy within the second part. Many stated Kerala had additionally made the error of permitting festivals to go forward, resulting in mass gatherings. Even the coverage response, consultants stated, had been anaemic – and although the state initially had managed to “flatten the curve”, the time they purchased was wasted.

Ms Shailaja stated a few of the criticism was unfair. “Because we did so well in the first phase, every reported Covid case in the state began to carry a whiff of failure.”

Also, regardless of the rising variety of circumstances, hospitals in Kerala weren’t overwhelmed and our mortality charge remained low all through, she added.

But consultants consider that Kerala’s comparatively low fatality charge didn’t inform the entire story. Reports alleged substantial undercounting of deaths in the state, claiming it was not including suspected circumstances to the ultimate rely, and was attributing deaths to underlying well being situations.

In her memoir, Ms Shailaja rejects the allegations. “We did the best job we possibly could,” she informed the BBC.

Many consultants too say that Kerala did an admirable job in controlling the unfold of coronavirus when in comparison with the poor efficiency of different Indian states.

“I think the most important thing we did was also the simplest: we took Covid seriously,” Ms Shailaja stated.

But it was the state authorities’s socialist basis of “putting people at the centre of their policy”, which made the distinction, she added.

The well being sector can’t exist in isolation, Ms Shailaja says. That’s as a result of illnesses are usually not merely a battle between a bunch and a microscopic enemy, enjoying out in an individual’s physique – they exceed the person and have an effect on your complete society. And the virus can’t be fought solely with vaccines.

“It requires more systemic reforms for overall social development. After all, everything is interconnected,” she says.

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