COVID-19: LESSON FOR WORLD
Outline
 What is pandemic?
 Viral diseases of 21st Century
 Outbreak of Corona
 Disappointing role of WHO
 Confusion of the world paramount governments
 Pathetic conditions of health sector
 Augmentation of budget for health
 Modification of the social life
 Catastrophic impact on the world economies
 Struggle for supremacy on Covid-19 vaccination
 Suggestions/solutions
 United resolve to eradicate the pandemic
 Restructuring of Education Sector
 Reformed norms and values for society
 Provision for free access to health
 Conclusion
The artificial intelligence was taking its roots, economies were breaking their day-to-day records, societies were evolving, cultures were being merged, global village concept was realizing in its letter and spirit, smart technology were taking its place, world were dreaming to conquer the space, ultimate fight for the supremacy was on its way when all of a sudden a pandemic – Covid-19 – hit the world and put a sudden halt on everything; cessation of development, stoppage on progress, termination of research. This is what the real scenario for the current world.
A pandemic is an endemic that spreads in multiple countries or continents which is a threat for the entire world. The same case is witnessed for corona virus as well. It broke out from China and gradually hit the world.
World has witnessed several outbreaks since the beginning of 21st century. Nipah (2001-2008), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – SARS (2002-2004), Avian Influenza – H5N1 (2003), Swine Influenza (2009-2010), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – MERS (2012 – to date), Zika virus (2013-2016), Ebola Virus (2014-2019) and finally COVID-19 (2019 – to date). None of these diseases except COVID-19 could register themselves as the pandemic. Although they’d the impact on some of the geographical areas but not a threat for the world.
COVID-19 (Corona Virus Identified in 2019) first marked its presence in November, 2019 in the province of the China – Wuhan. Wuhan is one of the busiest and most developed economic zone of China from where the world trades. The outbreak of COVID-19 was a severe blow to the people in general and for the economy specially. The reaction of Chinese government was initially not much appreciable but the struggle against the disease later on was considerable. Lockdown was proclaimed, health emergency was declared, offices were shut, resources were streamed, government bodies were put on high alert and several other emergency steps were taken to curb the disease from spreading among the masses. China, being the densely populated country, would never had been able to curtail the disease without taking robust decisions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the premier health organ of the United Nations (UN). Its prime duty is to guarantee the health of the world. It is one of its job description to play the proactive role in case of emergency or outbreak of pandemics, endemics or epidemics. It failed to play the proactive role. in this context. The statements by the head of WHO was confusing rather than cautioning. The timely warnings would’ve abated the loss caused to the world till today. WHO should’ve readily called on the health ministers, health secretaries or any other health officials of other countries to chalk out the uniform plan to counter this pandemic. But it failed to do so. It just relied upon the statements and press conferences.
The role of governments were not much different from WHO. The irresponsible statements by the premiers of the counties further aggravated the situation. COVID-19 was declared flu somewhere and somewhere it was not taken seriously. Mr. Donald Trump, the president of United States, even not taken it a threat for the nation. He continuously overlooked the warnings by the Central for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This irresponsive behavior paid the price. The people of Italy negated the impact of disease and put their lives on the mercy of this virus. All those countries who showed indifference towards the disease compensated with the valuable lives. On the contrary, the premier of New Zealand – Jasinda Arderon, Chancellor of Germany – Angela Markhel and Premier of China – Xi Jinping took strong steps and saved millions of lives of their country people. This is what was expected from other premiers of the states as well.
On one hand, world economies were depleting their resources in research for modern weapons on the other the hand their own people were living below the standards of life. On one hand world was encouraging the space agencies to conquer the space, on the other hand the common public was being deprived of their basic rights. COVID-19 exposed the priorities of the governments where public was the tertiary priority. Weapons for mass destruction, armies, space agencies and other technology-linked organization were at the first priority. Thanks to the Corona Virus which made the countries to alter their concerns. Now, the world is investing on the people rather than machines and so-called technological supremacy. Outbreak of COVID-19 has badly brought the shortcomings and inadequacy of health sector into light viz. Lack of ventilators, scarce of research facilities, dearth of medicines, and paucity of hospitals added fuel to fury. Moreover, the absence of cooperation at international level exacerbated the situation. This pitiable picture was not only exposing the preparedness of developing countries but also the most developed countries as well viz. United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Italy, Spain etc.
Now, none can deny the fact of ill-preparedness and poor management in handling the Corona outbreak situation. It has urged the governments to revisit their priorities, restructure budgetary allocations to assure the conformity of basic human rights to their people. Every state has allocated ample resources to combat this invincible and invisible enemy. Not only the governments have pooled their money but international monetary organizations have also come forward to fight against common enemy. Undoubtedly, the huge loss to the lives could’ve been abated but better late than never. Every single country of the world invested to strengthen their military to secure their borders but they forgot to strive against the internal, unexpected and vicious threats viz. corona virus or any other diseases.
Corona virus has multidimensional impact on the life of the residents of this beautiful world. It requires time and effort to bring countries together on one platform. This can only be done by socializing the people. COVID-19 has taught the world to obey the social and physical distancing. World has never expected to de-socialize their people but it has become order of the day. Self-hygiene, self-quarantine, and self-sufficiency have become mandatory for the masses. It’s not possible for governments alone to tackle this situation and defeat this pandemic. People have shut themselves inside their houses to halt the spread of corona because it’s the only way behind to defeat this disease. Cultural norms and values have kneeled down in front of Corona Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs).
Covid-19 has become a nightmare for the world economies. It has collapsed the oil market, scared the investors, and destroyed the stock markets and so on. The aftershocks are still shaking the economies. The world markets have never seen such a vicious downfall since the World War II. The most affected sectors are tourism industry, aviation industry, export businesses, luxury items manufacturing industries etc. The economy of countries where tourisms contributes heavily to the national exchequer have badly crashed. One such example is the European countries. Industrial sector has closed their units of production amidst the lockdown in different countries. This has multiplied the ratio of unemployment especially in developing countries. World may never be able to counter Corona until it ensures free access to the health. Healthy countries would ensure healthy economies. World requires human resources which should be guaranteed because natural resources, capital resources or any other monetary resources may not be fruitful until human resources are available for disposal. Economic giants like China has successfully countered the invisible enemy and has established their writ in their country. There is a lesson for the other countries to constrain the spread of Corona. Different countries of the world must sit together and allow the expertise of Corona-free countries to flourish and may become the torch-bearer for the other countries. Now, the time has come for global cooperation to lessen the damage to the economy.
After facing so much damage to the economy, devastation to the society, loss of human lives, halt in the development and bearing the enormous destruction in the education sector; still the developed countries are grappled in the so-called supremacy and hegemony. This is the time to unite but it is being exploited by the so-called developed countries. Every country is researching the same but with different locations and diversified methods. WHO should’ve taken steps to build consensus among the countries to produce the vaccination for Corona by uniting their expertise, resources and efforts. This certainly would have helped in reducing the time for the production. Working autonomously would acquire more time and resources. The researchers are being offered huge sum of money to work for the single country. This is not suitable for this situation where urgency is increasing day by day.
As the time indicates, developed countries should come forward and ponder upon the unity. This is the only way behind tackling the situation. Lockdowns and social distancing may not be applicable for long. There needs to be a viable solution for this pandemic. This is nothing but vaccination. WHO should organize the countries to jot down their efforts and put aside their differences and conflicts for at least this time of urgency. There should be global consensus on producing vaccination not for the sake of supremacy but for the humanity. Corona victims are not only developing countries but also developed countries even they’ve paid the huge price for their confusion and confrontation. Certain steps should be taken to resolve the conflicts and should urge the world to benefit from the expertise of China and New Zealand to handle the situation. These countries have defeated the Corona with their effective policies and robust decisions. There is no harm in following these countries at least at this juncture.
A country can never flourish until it ensures the prosperity of the minds. This is done by educating the youth to make them helping hand for the state. This is youth that would extend their support to achieve the common goals and objectives. None of the government can ever implement the policies successfully unless it ensures the cooperation of the youth. The first step for the nurturing of professionals is the targeted case-based education. Countries should restructure their education plan to be proactive in future. This would be ensured by educating the next generation. The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can only be effective, if the youth takes the charge to spread awareness among the masses.
Society has entirely modified owing to the spread of Corona virus. This has set new standards to be followed. In such scenario, it’d be suitable to revisit the society norms and values and should reform them to make them viable for the common masses. The norm of shaking hands, hugging or other human touch should be replaced by some viable options. Greeting from distance can be one of the option to be followed. It’s not mandatory in our modern societies to have a closeness in greetings. Avoiding such obsolete norms can be helpful in restricting the spread of Covid-19. As social distancing is currently the only way behind. The use of mask should be obligatory in crowded places, application of hand sanitizers should be encouraged, self-hygiene should be promoted, awareness campaigns should be launched and social gathering should be shunned unless necessary but following the strict SOPs.
The assurance of SOPs would certainly reduce the rate of spread but will not wipe-out the disease. Still the need of advanced health sector is mandatory. One can’t deny the role of health agencies in eradication of Covid-19. Health sector should be equipped with modern facilities and medical persona should be trained to cure the newly born disease. Resources should be pooled to update the health sector. The advanced health sector is in the favor advance health facility. Health facility should be accessible to everyone irrespective of wealth, race, religion, caste, creed etc. Discrimination in terms of health would be devastating for the entire world. The remnant of corona will always be challenging for the entire world. The world will have to help the health sector not only to eradicate this pandemic but there should be provision for future as well.
It may be concluded from above detailed discussion that Covid-19 would never have caused such a huge damage if the governments have been proactive. But the time has not yet passed, hope still persists. Still the society can be remodified, progress and development can be reassured, technological advancement can be raised again, economies can be rejuvenated and standard of living can be improved again. World should unite and fight. Regional conflicts should be settled readily to play the part in making this world a suitable place to live. Peace and prosperity should be at the disposal of not only for the developed countries but for the developing countries alike. Opportunities should be created, world organization should be engaged to make them able to help the needy countries. All such provisions would make our world a peaceful globe. World should rectify its mistakes and should move ahead with rejoicing energy to benefit the humanity in real sense.