Restoring planetary balance

"We are living on the planet as if we have another one to go to." Terry Swearingen. A statement that is apt to our attitude about planet earth. The only problem is that we can no longer fly to another place that is safe and sound. The Coronavirus crisis is an example of how every place and city where the rich used to go and the poor used to dream of going for their leisure, health and security is now beset with fears of shut, isolate or leave. But leave for where. The virus has truly taken the word "global" literally and is making London, New York, Rome and Paris look under siege on the map. Don't move, don't touch, don't meet are the only semi preventive steps regardless where you are located on the planet.
There are trillions of stories and studies on this virus. Thanks to social media they are universally shared on a click. Incidentally, the word viral on social media is derived from the actual virus as once a story is clicked by one person it reaches from person to person all around the world simultaneously. While this reach has been the social media's advantage it has also created its own monsters. A lot is being made of this virus being the be all and end all of all illnesses. Some sense needs to be injected into the argument to approach this calamity in a more detailed and comprehensive manner. At the moment, rightly so, the approach is all about fire-fighting and damage control. However, if the approach has to ensure that reoccurrence of such viruses at even bigger and deadlier scale does not happen we need to start doing what we have not been doing.
The recent memorable viruses are the outbreaks of smallpox, that was such an ugly and deadly virus for years, and HIV. Humans battled smallpox for thousands of years, and the disease killed about 1 in 3 of those it infected. It left survivors with deep, permanent scars and, often, blindness. Mortality rates were far higher in populations outside of Europe, where people had little contact with the virus before visitors brought it to their regions. For example, historians estimate 90% of the native population of the Americas died from smallpox introduced by European explorers. In the 20th century alone, smallpox killed 300 million people. Since the vaccine was discovered it became less lethal and in 1980 the world was declared smallpox free. In 1980, a new virus erupted i.e., HIV. An estimated 32 million people have died from HIV since the disease was first recognized in the early 1980s. The disease, though not that viral, continues to devastate many low- and middle-income countries, where 95% of new HIV infections occur. Nearly 1 in every 25 adults within the WHO African region is HIV-positive accounting for more than two-thirds of the people living with HIV worldwide. Due to research and anti-virals the life of an HIV positive is much longer now.
The normal pattern is that every decade a virus occurs and it affects millions of people and is normally more pronounced in a certain region. It leads to SOS for affected countries and relevant countries to do research, find a solution and then lull yourself in this belief of good riddance to a bad virus. When the next one occurs it is assumed that it is part of a pattern and thus has to be dealt with as part of living challenges. These viruses are now becoming more frequent, more stubborn and as the Novel coronavirus shows, more stubborn and widespread. That is why just treating it as once a decade and once a century malfunction that dysfunctionalizes life is not going to help. What the pattern is showing that all progress of mankind in making lives better goes out of the window as these invisible invaders destroy health, business, relationships and the very essence of being human. Imagine being called a social animal and being socially isolated or practicing social distancing to save yourself.
While doomsday predictions are being done by academics and religious leaders, all is not lost. This virus presents certain positives too:
1. Fastest but not deadliest-Coronavirus scare is that it has taken the world by storm by its light speed spread. It has now been established that it is the mildest in terms of fatality and damage. Only 3 to 5% vulnerable people will become a victim of it compared to HIV and Ebola that killed 50% people.
2. Equality in Attack-This is not an African or European concentrated virus like Ebola or HIV. This has affected nearly every country in the world at the same time. This is why its research and cure will be developed much faster for everybody as all have a stake in it. Already there are medicines that are giving positive potential for its treatment.
3. Out of the box is the new norm- With the comfort zones in countries tossed out of the world real and competitive innovation in living, working, learning, and surviving and balancing will take place which would have taken decades if not centuries to happen.
All of the above is the fight for virus damage control. The real paradigm shift, as Bill Gates had predicted in his TED talk of 2015 on the Virus wars, is how to invest in a strategic mindset, skill set and tool set change to prevent and eradicate the enabling environment created by man to foster and fester these viruses. Climate Change remains lip service and environmental conservation is just a fashionable ideology. The recent raging uncontrollable fires in Australia, the lung destroying smog in China and South Asia are all a few examples of the ecological imbalance we have created to disturb wildlife to an extend to where it has made human life wild.
Luis Escobar, a disease ecologist at Virginia University, says, climate change and deforestation have an impact on the movement of viruses. "So, it's, specific conditions like, de- forestation or increase of urbanization or agriculture, that put people closer to wildlife and that makes us more at risk or more exposed to these viruses that are natural in wildlife. Deforestation has increased steadily over the past two decades and is linked to 31% of outbreaks such as Ebola, the Zika and Nipah viruses. Respecting natural habitat and creating balances are not just philosophical and spiritual shop talks but are medically and biologically proven facts. As Director General WWF International Marco Lambertini said "A planet being pushed to the edge will eventually turn on us."
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])