COVID- 19

Part 3

COVID-19, HUMANS and POLITICS

When I was writing my last article on 7th April, 2020, around 1.5 million people around the world were infected by the corona virus and now after 35 days the total number of confirmed cases has increased by 280%. There are now 4.2 million people infected by the virus and almost 2,87,000 people have died due to it. Along with bringing health consequences, the virus have also brought serious political, economical and humanitarian situation affecting people world wide.

Humans are not new or relatively oldest species on earth. Before humans there might have been million types of living organisms on earth. Virus are also considered to be the oldest lifelike form and it has been proven that they have been on earth for a long time before humans. With this outbreak, it has been clear that no matter how advanced human become or how intelligent we think of ourselves, we are vulnerable to small (microscopic) nonliving (still a point of scientific discussion) beings. It clearly reflects that how advanced we become, we are still vulnerable. Though we think we are in control, nature will certainly rule us out over time. The recent corona virus crisis is a perfect example to that.

Whether it is a mind game, a game of manipulation or a game to take advantage of situation, politicians have started to centre coronavirus for politics. Donald Trump, the president of United States, have been constantly pointing fingers at china for mishandling coronavirus, bringing deliberate economic crisis to countries like USA and using Virus as a tool to establish a solo economic dominance around the world since late February. Though he was constantly praising china for containing virus and taking absolute measures to ensure safety of the people as virus appeared in Wuhan, the table turned when cases began to appear inside USA. Other countries are also disagreeing with china and its policy of not letting independent research on the origin of Corona Virus and the supply of unworthy medical equipments to different countries from Chinese companies. China on the other hand have banned companies that are not government approved to export medical supplies and denying investigation reasoning that they can investigate the matter themselves. Another reasoning that sources from outside claim that China will deny independent investigation fearing that many secret of its system might get exposed and in the name of the independent research, foreign spies and intelligence will infiltrate the Chinese system. It is a clash of big nations and an example of regional conflict for economic and political dominance.

On the other hand, coronavirus is uses as a facade to initiate other political move. India has inaugurated a road network connecting border with china and the LOC, that runs through the disputed region of India and Nepal. Few months back India claimed the land and included it in its political map and how has inaugurated a road network while Nepal is in lockdown and the nepalese government is focused in corona control and the leading political party is having internal dispute. In USA, international media have been constantly publishing dispute between state government and the federal government regarding peoples safety and reopening of the economy.While the central government in India is urging railway to reopen, which has been shut down for last two months, the regional governments are opposing the move fearing virus spread. COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in India. The virus is crippling economy as the countries are in some sort of lockdown for far too long and dwindling economy is seen as a government failure. To SAVE their face and in the name of reopening economy some governments are playing with the health of its citizens.

At this rate and looking at the trend, COVID-19 is not showing any signs of slowing down. Its the responsibility of government for the safety of the people because they are there for that purpose. Economy definitely will get a hit but health is more important than economy. Politics should be fair.

COVID-19

Part 2


Well, Well, Well

What a roller coaster ride we are having in the world at the moment. The last article I wrote about COVID-19 was on 17th of March and at the time, the number of total cases was around 200,000 and the death was around 7,500. Time has changed. The virus has spread rapidly around the world. Almost a third of the world is under some kind of lockdown. Almost 1.5 million people are infected and around 81 thousand people are dead because of the virus.

The virus started in Wuhan in China and now it has its presence in almost all countries in the world. Wuhan was considered as the epicentre at the beginning (January-late February), however the cases have almost stopped increasing. The total cases in the place of origin is already overshadowed by cases in USA and many European countries. Epicentre of virus is considered as the place having clustered cases and spreading it further in the region and even further. The epicentre of virus has also been jumping form one region to the other. From Wuhan in china, the epicentre shifted to Italy. The virus is spreading real fast in there at the moment. At the same time, New York is the epicentre of virus spread in the USA. The virus has created a harsh situation in NY with almost a third of total cases in USA with most deaths and still growing infection rate.

The impact of corona virus have already started to be seen on economy, mental health and animals that are human dependent. Animals are stated getting starved and are basically roaming for food around streets, snatching food from humans and even attacking humans in different cities in the world which are in lockdown. Economy is definitely getting impacted as sector like aviation, hospitality, retail and tourism industry have already lost huge amount in revenue and million of people are relieved from their work.

Another important thing everyone should be concerned about is fake news, conspiracy theories and racism. With maximum people staying at home, people have a lot of time to think so its is not
surprising that conspiracy theories come out. There is one shocking theory going in Uk. People are burning down 5G tower in a belief that it spreads corona virus. The theory is that the corona virus started in Wuhan, china and the 5G also started initially from wuhan, china. People are connecting these dots, relating corona virus and 5G, and destroying 5G infrastructures in UK. There are many racist behaviour relating asian nationals as the carriers and the main reason for the virus. In addition to that, social media have made it easy for fake news to spread around the world. Social medias have brought us closer but it also has brought these negativity like easy spread of fake news. This is a big issue and is of a huge concern.

To sum up, pandemic like this corona virus are hard to predict. However, we can be prepared. For the moment, lets practice social distancing, stay home and stay safe as much as we can until and unless we have important works to do.

We are yet to see how the situation is going to unfold as a lot of things surrounding this virus is going on.

COVID-19

Part 1



CORONA VIRUS, it is a hot global news at the moment. It is everywhere. Newspaper, TV, social media and every possible media outlets are flooded with corona virus news. The fear of virus have contributed in dwindling share market , resulting in melting global economy. Experts say that the world is heading towards recession. Deaths, infected, possible outbreaks, potential risks and this and that. Looks as if things are spiralling out of control. It is especially because of the media hype. Let us think, is it worth all the hype?

While I am writing this article, there are 1,815,87  confirmed cases out of which 78,957 recovered and are back to normal life as before the virus and there are 7,139 reported deaths. While the actual figures might be higher, these confirmed case reflect something significant, its spreading quite fast.

People are scared. Stockpiling for possible lockdown has cause shelves in supermarkets to go empty. The  'survival of the fittest" mode is on. People with weak immune system and the old people of age 70+ are losing the fight against the virus. Weak people are not even able to get daily required groceries from the market. Anyone experiencing casual fever or having a sore throat or even a runny nose are fearing of corona virus infection. Mental health of every individual is getting affected. Individual with perfect physical fitness are experiencing a fragile mental state.

So, let us get into the real issue. Should these news get this much of a hype? Are these hype creating more negative influence among people than preparedness and are all the news circulating around creating anything more than fear?

Fear is important as the fear pushes people to follow preventive measures against the virus. However, it is also creating a chaos. Its the duty of the leaders to assure its public of safety. If they are unable to do it then it means that they fail to do their part as a leader. Controlling panic ultimately results in smooth functioning government and a sound economy.

The growing social media influence have been affecting people and their lifestyle. Fake news should be suppressed and those contributing in spread of these news should face some kind of penalty which will help in demotivating the spread.

It is us who are spreading the virus and its us who can stop this spread. So, let us work together to control this spread.

COVID-19 shall be defeated.