Vaishnavi ChandrashekharScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.MUMBAI, INDIA—One day at the end of April, dentist Azmera Shaikh tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
That afternoon, feeling feverish and achy, she and her mother, who had also tested positive, descended from their apartment here to board an ambulance to the hospital.
They were startled to find a dozen or so neighbors lined up with mobile phones in hand. Pictures and videos of their departure soon circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook. “We were entertainment,” Shaikh says. “We were the joke of the town.”A volunteer with the nonprofit Doctors for You, Shaikh had seen the fear and distrust brought by the pandemic.