Daily Times

Researchers have revealed unalike narratives about the origin of COVID-19. What I am certain of is that the appearance of new viruses and diseases causing pathogens is the outcome of imbalances in the Earth’s ecosystem. Man has been busy in industrialization and utilization of resources in an uneven way. Global warming has marred the temperature of the planet. Water pollution and industry wastages have put the aquatic life at stake. The heavy usage of poisonous chemicals has killed the insects at larger scale. Almost 1.5 billion people of China and 0.8 billion Europeans have been munching snakes, mice, street dogs, insects, aquatic animals and nearly everything for a long time. A a result, the number of species essential to maintain an orderly ecosystem has dropped. The food chains are characterised by undesirable gaps now. All this has instigated disproportion in the ecology. The humans, in this way, have gifted themselves with new generations of germs and lethal viruses. Coronavirus has taken birth in the same way.

Practice 3S Principle to retaliate COVID-19: sanitize your hands periodically, sneeze properly, and stay at home mostly

Since primitive times, three things have been testing the level of resilience in mankind: natural calamities, endemic diseases and chronic wars. The butchering World War II put the human beings to test and the result was a massacre. Humanity appeared to be absent from the hearts of Americans and they made bad use of the dirty atomic weapons. The disastrous earthquakes occurring in different parts of the world concluded in annihilation, leaving thousands dead, injured and homeless. The unbridled plagues have been proved even ruthless. SARS in 2003, Swine Flu in 2009 and Ebola in 2014 infected the human beings vehemently and swallowed thousands of lives worldwide. During the first quarter of 2020 the human beings have encountered yet another trial in the form of deadly coronavirus.

The contemporary COVID-19 has broken out in more than 180 countries resulting above 10,000 deaths and leaving thousands of victims. The disease is being fought bravely in highly affected countries which include but are not limited to China, Italy, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France, United Kingdom and America. Pakistan and India are no exceptions. The dark clouds of COVID-19 are hovering over the innocent lives with unlimited amount of fear that seems to be the real infection.

So far, the apparent origin, symptoms and the precautions are well known to the people around the landscape. Let us reiterate these things! Starting from fever, cough and cramps in body, coronavirus behaves insanely with the human respiratory system for two weeks. The good news is that only three percent fatality rate has been recorded in case of COVID-19 attack.

The world could follow the recent Chinese model to retreat heinous coronavirus. The immediate establishment of temporary hospitals and facilitated quarantines is what the Chinese have mastered during the last two months. Salute to the Chinese medical crews who have presented their services bravely to extricate coronavirus. They have presented their lives to save others’ lives. Unfortunately, the Pakistan’s Young Doctors Association has disseminated a disappointing message to the nation; they have just refused to put their lives to risk under auspices of the available medical paraphernalia.

Vaccination for the COVID-19 is still unknown to the human beings. Relying on the state resources therefore is not sufficient to fight this pestilence. Social contributions are essential. Being responsible could bear fruit. Attending the victims with motivation, care and love is what a few nations lack in.

Devising a Cooperative Action Plan could defeat this deadly enemy. Practice 3S Principle to retaliate COVID-19: sanitize your hands periodically, sneeze properly, and stay at home mostly. If you are ready to save others from this disease, it reflects the others will definitely save you in the same way. Take care of the people around you if you want to take care of yourself. Keep the distance; work from home and propagate the safety measures to your loved ones. A few days confinement is the actual vaccination of all kinds of plagues.

In order to strongly combat COVID-19, the world necessitates to be unified. My humble message to the world is to show empathy and extend cooperation to all and sundry, including marginalised communities, refugees and prisoners. Leaving a single patient unattended means leaving the humanity to die. Following the concept of equality could save precious human lives and strengthen the social fabric for furtherance. The stronger economies and the IMF could outdo the third world countries.

This is the high time to curve human activities to the right way. The Homo sapiens must revise their eating habits knowing what to eat and how much to eat. The environment needs to be protected at all levels. Otherwise, we will have to face the music in the form of more deadly viruses in future. We should be too far from our hands to touch, but not too far from our hearts to touch!

The writer is researcher and journalist. He can be reached at waheedmba@yahoo.com