As India’s COVID crisis rages, its neighbors brace for the worst SECTIONS As India’s COVID crisis rages, its neighbors brace for the worstBy Bhadra Sharma, Aanya Wipulasena and Vivian Wang, New York Times Last Updated: May 13, 2021, 11:02 PM IST Share Synopsis The question is whether that will be enough, in a region that shares many of the risk factors that made India so vulnerable: densely populated cities, heavy air pollution, fragile health care systems and large populations of poor workers who must weigh the threat of the virus against the possibility of starvation. AFP Even in countries where a spring surge has not been directly linked to the Indian outbreak, the ripple effects have created fresh pain.