AYESHA IFTIKHAR
FLAMES of corona are casting an ee rie glow. Is it once in 100 years that the world’s population gets annihilated by a pandemic? Just check out the timeline. Plague in the year 1720, cholera outbreak in the year 1820, Spanish flu after the FirstWorldWar that reportedly killed more people than they were collectively killed in the war. And now the novel coronavirus…The precision with which these pandemics have been taking place is not just alarming but suspicious too. I mean 100 years pass and the human race gets prone to a disease or virus venomous enough to kill thousands of people. I’m not qualified enough to get along with all the rapidly taking events after the spread of coronavirus. However, I’m gathering some rapidly spreading apprehensions regarding the virus. Did you hear the term 5th generation warfare? It is warfare where poisonous bacteria, viruses or infectious agents are incorporated in a particular society with the intention to kill unarmed human beings. No armed forces are deployed. You might not see the actual weapons deployed by the enemies, but the lethal viruses are there to gain the strategic advantage. The coronavirus that we are facing today can more precisely be called this tool of widely spreading bio-warfare. You might have seen United States President, Donald Trump, blaming China for deploying the Virus. However right now, it is extremely difficult to trace whether it was originated by China or by the United States or by someone else. We are not going to find the answer unless research comes showing who originated the virus or whether it is man-made or a natural one. Need is to trace out the first victim if we really want to know the origin and want to fade away the apprehensions as the US and China both have strong points while blaming each other. Suppose the virus was being spread with the intention to put a halt on the economy of the rival. You know the biggest quest right now among the countries is to maintain economic well-being as the next superpower is going to be the country with the most stabilized economy. The clash among nations is of the economy basically. If this is the reason, the culprit has achieved the end as today the entire global economy has got a major setback. Economic repression is there as employers are not healthy to go to the work slipping the downward trajecting economy further towards recession. The international movement of people and goods is being limited owing to the spike of the virus. After taking up this point that this pandemic is artificially created with this malicious agenda of surprise destruction motivated more by frustration than by any coherent plan, let us move to the second apprehension. Some believe that coronavirus is nothing but ‘punishment from God’. Whatever the reason is, the situation is getting worse with each passing hour. Don’t know if this apprehension that coronavirus is being created with the objective to sell vaccines is true or not as the microbiologists and researchers working in high budget laboratories are unable to come up with the vaccine of the virus. According to the World Health Organization’s prediction, the number of Corona stricken patients will hit one million by the end of this week. In Pakistan, the cases of Corona are escalating with every passing day. The situation is alarming. It is terrifying keeping in mind the fact that God forbid if a situation like Italy arises, we won’t be having enough facilities to tame the crisis. Having a diminutive number of ventilators with all the public and private hospitals is what shows the least concern of the governing bodies when it comes to providing healthcare to approximately 220 million people. PM Imran Khan, in his recent address, has announced a multi-billion relief package. How good this package is? Time will tell. Because right now we can’t do much except waiting and seeing what time will turn out. Societal behaviour is needed to be changed to reduce the spread of the virus. It is the age of the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp groups are bombarded with fake news, data and figures. Spreading false news is making people panic. The need of the hour is to calm the people down on both the giving and receiving ends. Some liberals might get offended, but I believe it’s high time that we seek forgiveness from God. Finding the cure is a necessity, but repentance should also be considered a panacea to get out of this chaos. —The writer is freelancer.
