How India’s second wave became the worst COVID-19 surge in the world

New Delhi (National Geographic)---   During the past few weeks, Indian social media has been inundated with SOS messages: hospitals tweeting about dwindling oxygen supplies and physicians watching helplessly as patients perish from preventable deaths. A journalist pleading for but denied a hospital bed took to Twitter to log his deteriorating condition till he died.

Overwhelmed crematoria are working round-the-clock to keep up with the pace of bodies; furnaces have melted down from overuse and additional funeral platforms are being built outside. Such are the heartbreaking messages and haunting images that highlight the formidable second wave of the coronavirus pandemic raging through the country.

The Biden administration is moving into a new phase of its campaign to vaccinate as many Americans as possible for the coronavirus, one where the government may not always be the best messenger to persuade people to get their shot.

So it's working to bring together hundreds of local and national groups into something it calls the COVID-19 Community Corps, enlisting people to help their friends, family and neighbors make appointments and get access to vaccines.

On a recent evening, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy led a Zoom call for people who have signed up to help. "I just want to remind you again, which we will keep doing again and again and again, that this is not just a government-driven effort," he said.

"It's about creating a community where we can celebrate what people are doing," Murthy said. "Where we can share best practices, where we can inspire one another just as we learn."