Pressure Builds, Pressure Releases : Pros & Cons of a Global Pandemic ft. COVID-19.

“You can only connect the dots looking backwards” — Steve Jobs

Interviewer : What are you most afraid of?

Bill Gates : ‘ Earlier I used to think that the biggest threat to humans is that of a Nuclear War, but recently I have started to think that maybe it will be the next epidemic that will be our undoing. I have recently realised that we are not at all prepared for the next epidemic’

There’s a certain prophetic undertone in what Bill Gates said in 2015.

Malaysia was ranked at the top spot in terms of epidemic preparedness for upper middle class income group based disease in 2017. As of 20th March 2020, Malaysia had over 1000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which is the highest of any ASEAN country.

1347 — Bubonic Plague

1500s — Smallpox

1881 — Cholera

1918 — Spanish Flu

1957 — Asian Flu

1968 — Hong Kong Flu

1981 — HIV/AIDS

2003 — SARS

2009 — Swine Flu

2012 — MERS

2013 — Ebola

2015 — Zika Virus

2019 — Corona Virus

3 epidemics in the first 1900 years of AD and 10 in the past 100 years. Most of the recent viruses have all had one common thread that runs through their inception which is of insanitation and poor hygiene. You would think that as the world evolves and develops our modern methods of sanitation and waste management would improve the overall sanitation of the planet but what happens instead is that waste is just removed from your visual periphery and dumped strategically so that you can’t see or smell it. We are still ways from starting to throw human waste into outer space till then it will just be about making sure you can’t see or smell it.

There is always a lesson in history. During the Chinese Famines of the 1960s the Chinese government let go of their control over food production and privatised the whole sector. This led to a lot of small farmers starting to hunt and sell meat of wild animals. From snakes, bats, peacocks to hyenas, tigers and bears everything was being hunted and sold at these ‘wet markets’. Due to shortage of food people had little option but to resort to eating wildlife. Once the famine was over the wildlife meat industry took off in China and went on to be marketed as the life improvement foods similar to supplements. This led to the creation of a new industry which quickly led exploitation and ended up making these wildlife species endangered. China tried to regulate this industry which led to the creation of infamous ‘Wet Markets of China’ where at least 30 different species of animals are slaughtered and sold in tandem. Transfusion of blood, pus, excrement and in turn their bacteria and viruses is happening across species. This was a biological time bomb waiting to implode and it did in 2003 when it led to the creation of SARS virus. China temporarily banned the sale of wildlife in wet markets amidst international pressure and scrutiny of their food industry. What happens next has always been the main reason for every mishap ever; human greed and corruption kicks in ; China lifts the ban on wildlife sale in wet markets and another variant of corona virus namely COVID-19 is born in December 2019 in another wet market in china. 250K patients and 11K deaths later China has again put a ban on the sale of wildlife in wet markets. Let’s see how long this one holds. Despite the catastrophe that was the story of China’s wet markets, most asian countries still have not put a complete ban on wildlife sale in wet markets.

If we don’t learn anything from our history; then history is nothing more than just one thing after another. Modernisation is a culprit in itself for if only Air travel from China had been banned sooner there would be no spread and we all could continue going on about our life sucking on the lollipop of mediocrity.

“A Phoenix rises only from the Ashes” — Dumbledore

The basic theory behind an earthquake is that the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust rub along each other in opposite directions. When they have drifted sufficiently far apart the tension in the plates forces them to return to their (default position ± Δ). So in essence, pressure builds — pressure releases. Pandemics can also be looked at as Biological Earthquake. Of recently we have been putting too much pressure on nature through overpopulation, resources exploitation etc.. so the frequency of these Biological Earthquake have gone up.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see through different lenses but a global pandemic like the one that we are currently in the midst of can have certain benefits.

1. In the past 3 months as the situation has grown more dire and the world is starting to impose lockdown region by region, we are seeing natural cleaning of many popular tourist spots and the environment which were earlier overburdened by people.
2. For the time being the world has stopped focusing on our differences and are trying to harbour a spirit of community by trying to foster communal well being.
3. A good number of us have never felt fear quite this way and this has led to an increased appreciation of life with a good number of us already making plans for when things go back to normal. We have finally taken our head out of the societal roles that were given to us and for the first time many of us are questioning the nature of things around us.
4. It has helped all of us as a species to understand the flaws in our system and highlighted our unpreparedness in case of a global calamity.
5. It has led to a reset in the economy and in our ways of working. Work life may never be the same again.

The fact that a virus from a small market in china is now affecting 186 countries really is a testament to the globalised world that we live in.

“Human civilisation has always tried to prevent death from cheating life” — Carl Sagan

It’s definitely a weird time to be alive. From quantum computing to Communal Riots to Avengers:Endgame to War to Global Pandemic, the last 15 months have been eventful. Think about the current pandemic in this way : sometimes parents give brandy to their kids to have them calm down. Its not good for their health but for the parent it is just too frustrating and they run out of patience to take the longer slower route. We as a species need to calm down because we just got our dose of brandy.

1. We are already in the midst of severe spikes in the death rates globally. There is massive burden on the Medical infrastructures across nations.
2. Every new virus leaves its imprints in our DNA which manifests years later in the form of a new mutation or disease. This is how HIV was born. For infected patients a virus permanently alters their anatomy
3. This is the time when the garb of niceness that we all wear is taken away. As supplied fall short and the hoarding mentality kicks in we access the truly selfish part of us that we try to hide during our daily routine. Rebuilding society and trust from that stage is always tough.
4. With major impact on the economy, supplies will fall short, prices will surge, many businesses will get directly impacted due to draconian lockdown laws, money from the system will start to go away, people will start to lose their job, deflection cycle kicks in, factories will get closed, production of new stuff will stop.

“Little knowledge is very dangerous” — anonymous

With the advent of genome coding the field of medicine has taken massive jumps through time. With today’s technology scientists have been able to make a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in just 48 days which earlier used to take between 6–12 months. The vaccine for upcoming pandemics and current epidemics could be made with the current tech but it’s not a profitable business model which is why no one is making it. By the time the vaccine is ready the world is already over that virus and then no one wants to take the shot. There is ample information available on the internet about to-dos, myth busters, precautions but what they miss to highlight is how do you deal when the current generation of Millennials that suffers from PTIE syndrome goes into the introspection mode. Most of us are neither talented or rich enough to do what we really love, so the plan that we have for life is to grind and grind and grind till we get rich and then we figure out what to do in life. This could take anywhere between 20 years to your whole life. What we realise at the end of it all is that most of life is not in our control so it’s just good to take life one hour at a time and let the rest be. No one is currently talking about the world post the epidemic is over. What are the Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal & Environmental ramifications of the unprecedented situation that we are currently living it?

The next two weeks are crucial for how this pandemic turns out, it can go either of the two ways either we are making plans for what to do once this pandemic is over or we will all be taking out our bucket list and trying to finish it up. The natural uncertainty of time and space is dialed up to eleven in our current situation but one thing’s for sure 2020 will be a year to remember.