Taj Nabi Khan
THE invisible yet powerful wave of cross-border pandemic of COVID-19 has levelled the human race, a balancing or refreshing act of nature, by affecting the human species beyond cultural, geographical, political and religious boundaries. Coronavirus doesn’t differentiate between rich and poor, strong and weak, black and white, young and old, spreading over without looking into social status, race, identity, gender, faith or nationality. There is neither a centre nor a periphery now but a Corona-stricken world all around.
The virus has paralyzed the whole world as mobility has become a challenge: people have confined to their homes, wheels jammed, borders closed, countries locked, businesses shutdown. Almost all activities are suspended by putting an end to public life to halt the spread of virus. But it is still spreading to subjugate and control the human species. The virus has also challenged the core values of socialization by forcing people to change the paradigm of their social interaction with a new norm of ‘social distancing’ — learning the new mode of life. People are turning to be strangers to each other as it has urged the citizens to unlearn the old ways and learn to adapt with the ‘new ways of life’.
It is hard to understand the course of new virus — whatever the reason, be it revenge of animals against human beings, nature against man or for that matter human against human but it has put the entire human race in a challenging situation with emerging realities of life. The time period of its persistence is yet unknown even to the most developed world. The new virus has spread over to more than 200 countries, infected more than 40 million and killed around three million people other than causing mental agony and psychological damage. Though its spread has not contained yet but it has taught the mankind a few new lessons by challenging the idea of invincibility. It seems as if the arm race is over and the course of action has changed now as people are dying helplessly in presence of advanced technology.
The pandemic has shaken the global health system and economies. The pandemic has also badly exposed the public health sectors of the underdeveloped countries, their wrong priorities, huge gap in population growth and public health facilities. It has also changed the centuries old phrase “united we stand, divided we fall” to “united we fall, divided we stand”. If the developed part of the globe is worried about public health safety, the underdeveloped part is in severe panic due to their poor health system and weak economies to support its citizens in the fight against the disease. The situation could lead even to a large number of deaths due to hunger and starvation caused by the coronavirus lockdowns.
The powerful and developed countries with advanced weapons seem unable to protect their people from the pandemic. However, only trained medical scientists, empowered paramedics, enhanced medical facilities, advance medical research, educated youth and coordinated efforts can help decrease the sufferings of people in face of such tragedies. If globally strict measures were not taken to contain the pandemic, it would hit the whole world worse than the WW-II. The situation demands the world bodies to act promptly and come up with strategies to win this global war in each and every country. The risk to health of one person is a risk to all. It is high time to learn that living together is better than dying together.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in Islamabad.
