After Corona: Time to change human behavior for a better world

More than 11000 people dead, 260000 infected and the number is increasing in alarming pace world over. Europe has so far witnessed 5000 deaths and the deadly infection has spread to 166 countries. On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and on 11 March 2020, WHO characterized SARS – COV-2, which causes disease, KOVID – 19 as pandemic. The intensity of the Corona virus infection has gone beyond expectation.

How come a common Corona virus of animal origin has become a mass killer? It has slowed down the economy to recession level and the estimated loss to global economy would be $ 2 trillion. It has paralyzed social life, halted business activities, closed institutions, created panic and chaos with its potential to kill thousands of people. A virus has never caused such devastation in the 21st century.

Many contrasting theories have emerged to cloud the actual reason behind the transformation of a simple Corona virus into a potential mass killer. It was a fact that China was doing intense research on a group of corona viruses in its Wuhan Virology Lab and the virus first infected people in Wuhan in mid-November 2019 and spread to other parts of China. Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Narendra Modi Government had reportedly said “acknowledgement of a potential problem is best done speedily. China could perhaps have acted better and earlier. Second, it should have acted speedily to identify, test, contain and mange.” US Republic Party Senator, Tom Cotton reportedly said “he was looking into holding China accountable for the Corona virus pandemic.”

The possibility of China developing a bio-weapon from the gentle corona viruses cannot be ruled out. The Chinese officials and researchers put the blame on bats for transmitting the infection to human. Researchers found 500 corona viruses in bats but none proved so fatal like KOVID 19 before. Besides, the Wuhan animal market does not sell bats to people. Then the officials and researchers found another scapegoat-the gentle pangolin, whom they said had played the role of intermediary between bat and human. Experts ruled out the role of pangolin as the endangered animal was not for sale in Wuhan wet market. Now the Chinese officials are looking for another animal to blame.

China’s initial refusal to US scientist group to investigate the virus outbreak in Wuhan further strengthens the theory that KOVID-19 has some link with the pathological lab. China strongly condemned the theories as conspiracy. The question is why China has not disclosed the outbreak until it killed thousands of Chinese? Whether China tried to hide the virus which escaped to cause a pandemic in the world?

After the outbreak, the Chinese officials blamed US Army telling the army had secretly brought the virus to Wuhan during a Military World Game in October 2019. Even today there is very little evidence to prove the origin of the dreaded virus. Many scientists have given statement saying the virus has evolved naturally and not genetically modified in a lab. The China government is defiant. The Chinese foreign minister, Zhao Ligian told to US “be transparent! Make public your data. The US owes us an explanation.”

As the pandemic threatens the life and livelihood of millions of people across the world, both, US and China blame each other for the virus attack. The question is how a virus of animal origin which had existed before, can trigger a pandemic of such a proportion?

When the entire world is eager to know the origin of the virus, there is frantic effort by various groups to cloud the origin of this mass killer. It happened in China and everybody knows how difficult for outside agencies to investigate the root cause of the pandemic which has paralyzed the world.

The human behavior change from ethical to unethical is the one of the reasons behind the man-made calamity. “We are destroying the habitats of animals and birds to build landscapes that are more human dominated. Animals are mixing in a strange way that has never happened before,” said Kate Zones, Chair of Ecology & Bio-diversity at University College, London. Many Viruses exist in healthy natural forest and in animals and birds in a controlled environment. “There are tens of thousands of viruses waiting to be discovered,” said Prof Andrew Cunningham from Zoological Society, London.

This is high time for the human race to learn from the mistake and understand economy is an extension of eco-system. Indian saints and sheers spoke and wrote about it long long back. “There are tens of thousands of viruses waiting to be discovered,” said Prof. Andrew Cunningham from the Zoological Society, London.