COVID-19: A Virulent Interlude in Modern Civilization
It was the first night of family vacation in New York in 2019 spring, we were shaken up at midnight by a tiny insect. Having planned for a great vacation in one of world’s best cosmopolitan cities, the bed bug was last thing in our mind. When we shared the nightmare with our tour guide next day, he retorted that bed bugs and rats are equal-right citizen of the city. A little more curiosity revealed rats and bed bugs thrive in densely populated areas, there are about 2 million rats live in the city vis-à-vis 8 million New Yorkers. With no love left for them, I started wondering how the pests like rats, mice, roaches and bed bugs resist the urban population and continue to thrive, that too in the city which epitomizes modern civilization. The realization was eye opener for me, the submission of human superiority to the sheer force of nature which is creating and destroying life on earth for billions of years. The human act of defiance often marginalized by the roaches, rodents and bugs, which were created, crafted and nurtured by earth for millennia. The arrival of novel coronavirus into modern civilization is a stark reminder of our delusion of grandeur.
What is that virus?
Virus and bacteria are the earliest lifeform, or do they? Well, there are contradicting theories whether virus is a living thing or a mobile genetic element which becomes an active and infectious agent in a favorable environment, aka a host cell. What is the origin of such a thing which does no good to life we celebrate? There are no clear scientific explanation, although there are few good hypothesis. I’m not a scientist, so my answer is analogical one to put things into perspective. Imagine the industrial revolution in last two centuries created complex structures like diesel engine and skyscraper. But fossil fuel driven industrial growth also released toxic sulfur in atmosphere, attributing to extinction of many species from earth and respiratory ailment to our own kind. Now let’s expand the timescale for billions of years, long before human came into existence. The primordial earth began the journey to another revolution, protein synthesis, sequencing and replication. After many generations of making and breaking, the outcome is very evident today, complex lifeform like mammals and birds. Just as 200 years of industrial revolution posed chemical hazard, billions of years of protein revolution created biological hazard in the atmosphere, we name it virus. Like sulfur, the particle attacks our vulnerable organs, including respiratory system. However, unlike industrial revolution, we are neither the mastermind nor in complete control of protein revolution.
Is coronavirus causing COVID-19 novel?
Yes and no. The novel coronavirus strain is definitely new to us, even though we came in contact with other variants of coronavirus in the past. The new mutant, SARS-CoV2 appear to be more successful in penetrating host cells with its protein crown, thus more lethal and more infectious. As I write today, total reported cases crossed 2 millions and death crossed 150 thousands worldwide, creating a global pandemic of 21st century. However, such pandemic is not novel to mankind. Human civilization was shaped by virus and bacteria for thousands of years. The Spanish flu in the wake of World War I killed 50 million people alone. The black death (plague) in 14th century wiped 200 million population from Old World. The germs played catchup game with human as invisible enemy, attacking the weaker population and in turn, making the rest of the population well equipped to survive the future invasion. The war between germs and human not always ended in a victory of human. As described by Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, “the importance of lethal microbes in human history is well illustrated by Europeans’ conquest and depopulation of the New World. Far more Native Americans died in bed from Eurasian germs than on the battlefield from European guns and swords”.
How are we reacting to the crisis?
The current generation never witnessed a pandemic of a mass scale which spread like wildfire across the globe in a matter of months. The normal flu season kills 0.01% every year in US, eventually the vaccine makes majority of them future proof against those strains. When the new strain emerged apparently in a sea food market in Wuhan, China, the nature just unleashed the vicious cycle of attack on human. It took the world few days to realize the high fatality rate and infectious nature of SARS-CoV2. In addition, riding on the fast mobility of 21st century the virus sneaked in to other countries quickly, creating havoc in western Europe and north America. Simple math suggested that even the richest countries are ill equipped to fight the war against virus, they can’t afford medical support to so many people falling sick around the same time. There were no past lessons for political fraternity to deal with such crisis of humanity. There were not many options left except submission to science and global-level cooperation for survival. When few world leaders attributed climate crisis a figment of imagination, the new crisis and immediate consequences force them to rely on science beyond doubt. Some acted with a pledge of solidarity and cooperation at a global level, some resorted to exercising undue power in an attempt to control the situation. For a section of population, it was even more awkward. A fast-moving cart of civilization suddenly slowed down beyond their imagination. Sensing the doomsday ahead, they got clueless whether to stay on the cart or jump off. In utter confusion, they started fighting over toilet papers, hoarded food and ammunitions to bargain a few extra days of survival from the rest. Social distancing was the only option to slow down the spread and eventually defeat the virus. The social animal went socially distant, yet digitally connected to the rest of the world, giving more power to the already adopted instrumentarian society.
Will the world change post pandemic?
Well, the world will change for sure. We hope to see World Health Organization is taking more proactive role in containing future pandemics. We hope to see a bigger pie of GDP spent on healthcare than on defense, preferring the healer over the killer. The quest for a super vaccine will accelerate, with venture fund pouring in to virology research and development. Maybe we will start celebrating social distancing day in our school, colleges and offices in memory of COVID-19 and in preparation for future pandemics, a drill to isolate ourselves for a day. Maybe the same organizations and institutions will push for remote work environment to reduce the carbon footprint from earth, meeting the climate pledge we made to save ourselves. At the same time, I see the darker side of change. The biggest threat will come from the surveillance monopolists. The disheveled western democracy saw how China handled the crisis (or it looks so) with it surveillance and authoritarian power, issues like individual right, privacy or free speech look weaker than ever to the citizens worried about their life. Such panicked situation created a greenfield for surveillance giants to penetrate further to people’s life. The digital sensors will no longer be limited to your phone or in your bedroom, they get license to go under your skin, termed as surveillance-under-the-skin by modern historian Yuval Noah Harari, in his recent article. If 9/11 terrorist attack opened the door for mass-scale surveillance without the right to be forgotten, this pandemic can take it to the level where your blood pressure, body temperature of even your mental being is no more private. Even if that level of surveillance will be offered as opt-in basis, denying will be too costly for general mass, as worst as denial of health insurance from private providers. The societal lockdown will lead the humanity to permanent lock-in with sensory devices controlled by big few.
What lessons did we learn so far?
The pandemic of unprecedented scale was not really a total surprise, there were enough warnings from scientific community, international organizations and visionaries like Bill Gates, if only governments could pay attention to. However, the blow is unexpected and taught us a few valuable lessons. One, we are not the super species on earth as we claim to be. Time and again in history, the creatures like virus and bacteria found different vehicles like mosquitos, rats or even air to invade humanity, getting one step ahead. The debris of protein factory looks invincible until the time we elevate ourselves to non-carbon life. Two, the sensitivity and flexibility we enjoy as human society is remarkable. After the initial awe was over, we applied our collective human sense, and demonstrated our innovative skills to deal with unforeseen crisis. We came up with fully operational hospitals in a matter days, we halted non-essential businesses and locked ourselves up, we changed our liquor producing factories to make hand sanitizers, a section of society moved from non-essential employment like travel & leisure to essential services like delivery of essential items and healthcare. This lesson leaves me with a thought of uncertain future of proliferated artificial intelligence and lesser human value. We may not be able to demand such sensibility and flexibility from AI driven society. Finally, the novel coronavirus came to humanity as a great leveler. It meant no political or religious boundariess. The strong message emerging out of the menace is that we all are same biological imprint, irrespective of all the fictions like race, religion, nation or social rank we created for ourselves. While fighting the worst enemy of humanity, let us also celebrate the humanity, the one we belong to.
