Daily Times

Many months have passed since COVID-19 emerged on the global scene and a lot of information about it has come to light. Coronavirus originated in China and this pandemic was dealt with by a severe lockdown there. There is no freedom of the press in China like there is in other democratic countries and whenever any news originates from China, it’s closely monitored by the state. So, how accurate would it be to standardize any Chinese model? As soon as the epidemic spread to Europe, these countries also enforced lockdown, following the Chinese model. But Sweden is the only country in Europe that didn’t enforce lockdown from the day one. If we were to compare Sweden and other European countries, we could observe that the mortality rate is similar among them. Doesn’t this prove that the lockdown wasn’t an effective enough tool to deal with the pandemic?

Some people argue that the health facilities of a given country are very important in dealing with coronavirus. If this is true, why are the deaths from coronavirus higher in Europe and the United States, which have better medical facilities than in Pakistan and other developing countries? Doesn’t this phenomenon suggest that the availability of the best medical facilities, hospital beds, treatment, etc. is not a very effective measure of how a country will deal with COVID-19? Similarly, social distancing is considered to be the best tool to fight coronavirus. If this were true, Pakistan should be compared to any European country, like France or Italy. According to analysts, the people in those countries are more disciplined and literate. For this reason, they should be much better at following the social distancing and safety measures than the people in Pakistan. Why are the mortality rates so low in Pakistan then?

So, if we think about all these issues with an open mind, we could conclude that maybe there is something else that should be considered and analyzed. Maybe it has to do with the lifestyle and the day-to-day standard of living in each country. If we examine the lifestyle of the people in developed countries, they mostly confine themselves to their air-conditioned homes and offices. As a result, they aren’t adequately exposed to fresh air and sunlight. This is the reason their immune systems have weakened over the years. This is also the reason that the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc there. Many developing countries simply don’t have such facilities. In Pakistan, for example, due to loadshedding problems, most people continue to spend most of their time outside their homes in the open air. As a result of this, their immunity has increased considerably. Sunlight is also very important for boosting the human immune system. This immunity is the reason why the people of a poor country like Pakistan aren’t as affected by coronavirus as those of the United States or the richest countries in Europe. Why are our medical scientists and intellectuals ignoring these vital facts? Sadly, without understanding this important aspect, the measures that our social institutions, political leaders, and even our medical experts are talking about aren’t meant to increase human immunity but are about reducing it instead.

To do this, we need to reshape our lives in a way that strengthens our immune systems. This will require us to spend as much time as possible in the open air and design our homes so that fresh air can circulate freely. Having the windows closed all day with the air conditioning turned on has a very negative impact on our immune systems. In addition to this, we need to stop confining ourselves to the darkness, away from sunlight. We should go cycling and walking instead. Traveling in cars with the air conditioning turned on and the windows closed can also weaken our immunity. When the weather gets a little better, we should try to open the windows of our cars and inhale the fresh air.

The key aspect to think about is that there is only one viable way to fight this pandemic and that is by increasing our immunity

Next comes the matter of social distancing. How can we protect ourselves from coronavirus through social distancing? It’s impossible to know how many people in our homes have already been infected and have recovered as most coronavirus patients don’t have the same symptoms. It’s through these precautionary measures and social distancing that we’ve started creating deeper problems in our society. There was already so much fragmentation in our society that we’re only becoming more and more separated from each other due to this outbreak. If we still intend to be careful, the best way is to wear masks and gloves rather than stopping meeting each other completely. We’re now eliminating our business and our social interactions in the name of social distancing. How beneficial is this? Shouldn’t we consider our diet and elements that can boost our immune system?

If coronavirus could be eradicated using social distancing and other precautionary measures, the mortality rate in developed countries would be much lower. As far as the availability of a vaccine is concerned, this is not likely to happen in the next one and a half to two years. How many people can protect themselves from coronavirus during this time? COVID-19 spreads so quickly and so easily that it won’t be possible to avoid it for so long. Even now, if we were to carry out testing in Pakistan, it would reveal that the number of people already recovering from this virus aren’t in thousands, but rather in the hundreds of thousands. This was stated by Dr Zafar Mirza himself in an interview with a news channel.

The most important thing to understand that we should focus on the mortality rate and not the virus spread rate (number of patients that have tested positive for coronavirus). Our spread is the same as in any other country, but the only difference lies in the strength of the immune systems of the population, which is reflected only in the mortality rate. The better the immune response of the population, the lesser the mortality rate. It’s as simple as that. The media, especially in Pakistan, is sensationalizing the virus spread rate, which can be very sad and misleading.

Moreover, these tests are not very reliable and might show false positives, like when an asymptomatic patient who has caught the virus and has recovered still shows up as positive for the virus for several days. So, announcing the exponential increase of COVID-19 patients on the breaking news bulletin doesn’t only create panic in the public, but it also makes the government take counterproductive steps.

A high spread rate with a low mortality rate is, in fact, beneficial because that means that the population will reach herd immunity more quickly with a minimum loss of life. The mortality rate due to COVID-19 is one of the lowest in Pakistan. It’s heartbreaking to see government officials and media personalities talking about the situation while being totally oblivious to the facts and the ground reality. The biggest question is why are the medical experts unable to understand this? Or are they simply choosing not to?

The writer is a freelancer