The world’s tryst with a virus
From an Indian doc’s perspective
Millenials haven’t seen certain things the artists from the Renaissance have. War. Famines. Plagues. These words might resonate strongly in books like Homo deus, Inferno. What happens when an apparently invisible creature takes over the whole world?
Makes humankind seem primitive in their approach?
Economic slowdown. A bunch of apocalypse theories. And of course, mass panic and hysteria. Data analytics just bludgeon you with data and census from across the globe. The pandemic is causing more pandemonium than fatalities.
Viruses have been evolving for millions of years. Or say, billions? They’ve been theorised to have formed before life even originated on earth. It’s at times like these, you feel so little, compared to the grand design of the universe. One day, you wake up and see that the world as you know it, has actually been locked down. People cannot move across borders. Owing to a minuscule being that is so clever, it only thrives on human cells, nothing else.
Obviously, I give the virus the upper hand. It’s been evolving for millennia. It knows to survive. The fascinating part of the prediction is, according to researchers, the virus will eventually die down. The most lethal ones will kill their hosts. The less virulent ones ( the ones that just come like the flu) will obviously live on just among us, letting us go to work, board the subway train and enjoy a walk in the park. Co-existence has obviously been the way for a virus to thrive.
Coronaviruses have been studied for long. It has been known to cause common cold. It was only when SARS came up almost two decades ago, people took notice of it. The one causing COVID19 is just the 2019 mutated, stronger, more stubborn version of the same virus. Is it life threatening?
It will be if no one listens to the government and stays indoors. The exact rate of deaths just because of the virus is less than 1% worldwide(There is no clear evidence as of now). It’s just the number of avoidable deaths become so larger in number, it has caused such a huge impact. I come from India, where there are more funny memes about coronavirus than an actual census. Oh come on, India is the hub for so many of our pesky little foes. Tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, cholera. These are all endemic to the common rural Indian. So how bad is coronavirus?
In a country of 1.3 billion people (and still rising apparently, with work from home rules), there is only so much a virus can do. And there is only so much a government can do. They’ve imposed a curfew on March 22, 2020 (A Sunday!), in hopes that people would take this pandemic seriously over here in this part of the world. So isn’t it time?
It’s not because COVID19 is going to kill you. It’s only because, you staying put at home, will in turn help a sick person stabilise at the hospital. Instead of getting worried over what would go wrong with you, sit back and reminisce the events where Humanity has emerged the winner. Businesses will go down and people will lose jobs but still, hey, as an Indian who’s faced demonetisation, how bad could a virus hurt the economy?
Human lives can never shine sans Hope. Hope is the most beautiful neurochemical signal for a human being…the most dangerous as well. At this difficult time, we can only hope for things to get better in the coming months. It will be a coming of age story which we would narrate to our grandchildren in the future. A ripening process for all of us. In the time of need, the human spirit shows that it is indeed stronger than a virus. For it is not seen with the naked eye – only with the mind’s eye.
With Prayers to all
Dr. Dheeraj Panchaksharam
