THE VIRUS

The modern world, which is approximately a thousand years old and modern science even less, say approximately 400 years, is seen to have taken a beating from the Covid-19 virus.

What does this beating tell us? Would the human race now pause to introspect?

All the advancement that we, our past generations ( interestingly, how many of us can name our great great grandfather and are aware of his exploits and life style?) have boasted about, amounts to?

The most developed nations are on their knees, and that, shockingly is the truth!

Now let us see what has withstood the test of time, to understand the indication, direction or chance and timely warning that nature is giving us humans.

Learning, medicine, architecture, which existed before the Roman Empire ( approximately 2,000 years) are still existing for us to see, to use and apply in our daily lives with the same beneficial effects.

What has made these withstand the tests of time and vagaries through tens of thousands of years? The simple answer: their connection with nature, their relevance, reverence and gratitude to the bounty of nature.

In those very ancient of times, prior to 450 BC, the learned took directions directly from nature – only those which were beneficial, sustaining and life saving and life nurturing.

The thinkers of that era, did not pass their findings through test tubes in laboratories, because their knowledge was profound and linked to the divine.

If we wake up and heed this warning of the virus Covid-19, there is a possibility for our lot to survive for few more generations before the next big change known as apocalypse! How? Let us all come together and return, what we have taken from nature. This is the only path to survival. It is time to ‘shoot’ the experts!

Vaccine: The misnomer

Everyone is talking about the vaccine for Covid-19, there is a race: Russia has already declared one and the professionals are complaining that it was premature on their part. Adequate tests, as prescribed for such vaccines, were not carried out or recorded for scrutiny.

We talk about a vaccine, without realizing that it is only a temporary patch! Listen, no hear: men, women, children all humans; are you prepare to sacrifice half a million lives with every strain!?

Nature is asking, are we ready to tackle Covid-20, 21, 22……….! Nature is saying, ” Read my message to you folks! Are you deaf?”

As per Wikipedia: Paleovirology is the study of viruses that existed in the past but are now extinct. In general, viruses cannot leave behind physical fossils, therefore indirect evidence is used to reconstruct the past. For example, viruses can cause evolution of their hosts, and the signatures of that evolution can be found and interpreted in the present day.

Let us look at some of the findings of virology over the years:

1. Epidemics from viruses happened with change in human behavior and life style.
2. Around 12, 000 years ago, humans developed more densely populated communities for purposes of agriculture.
3. This density helped the viruses to spread rapidly and consequently become endemic.
4. Viruses in plants and live stock also increased with devastating consequences.
5. Viruses like Small Pox and Measles evolved from viruses that had infected animals.
6. Indigenous people had no resistance to viruses imported through invasions, conquests, etc.
7. The influenza virus dates back to late 1600 and later took the lives of about 50 million people in less than a year in 1918-19.
8. The nature of viruses could only be studied after the invention of the electron microscope in 1930.
9. It was discovered that most viruses are beneficial and play an important role in ecosystems.

Infectious diseases emerged over the past 100,000 years as humans increased in numbers. There were no infectious diseases in small isolated communities. And there were no epidemics. Reasons for infectious diseases leading to epidemics, as could be deduced from the results of virology studies could be summarized as follows:

• 1. Density: Owing to commercialization and with unbridled consumerism the world moved rapidly towards urbanization leading to concentration of humans together with livestock and every kind of food products imaginable to cater to fancy tastes much above what was required for healthy living.

• 2. Unhygienic conditions: Animals required to sustain human life, whether for work or for consumption are made to live in unhygienic conditions, and in most cases, with no checks for infections. Viruses in animals travel faster and jumps from one species to another easily. These viruses are then picked up by humans.

• 3. Severity: When viruses jump from one species to another, the severity of the disease increases manifold. Plants are also not spared.

• 4. Pollution: Density and the fast pace of modern life, brought with it pollution in every form possible. The escape routes got choked as the environment got degraded.

In ancient times the human population was too small for pandemics to occur and, in the case of some viruses, too small for them to survive. Half a century earlier, when the world population was half its present size and the advancement of medicine and health care had not reached today’s standards, the doctors recommended ‘change’. Meaning a move to a healthier place for recovery. For most, convalescence meant open surroundings, cleaner air for recuperation. For this, one didn’t have to travel too far in those days. Today, doctors rarely use the term ‘change’ as such a thing is rendered almost impossible in our present lifestyle.

A virus has no cell membrane, no metabolism, no respiration and cannot replicate outside of a living cell. A virus is a creepy half-live, single strand or double strand of DNA or RNA or both, looking for a cell to invade. Once inside, it reprograms the cell with its DNA or RNA and multiplies en mass, bursting through the cell with a thousand or more new virus strands seeking new cells to invade. 

Viruses are considered at the borderline of living and non-living, because they show both the characteristics of a living and a non-living. As they react like non-living in the free atmosphere but when they enter in the body of a living organism, then they show the features of a living organism and starts reproduction.

Good ventilation could be the key to avoiding virus attacks. But where do one find such places to live? Most do not have the luxury of well-ventilated living quarters. What with mass travel. Over crowded transportation system. Air conditioning. And a host of modern day ills.

Permit me to share my experience over the last seven months after the pandemic took hold of us. Among the working class, comprising of our daily helps and vendors, i.e. maids, drivers, gardeners, sweepers, sanitation workers, vegetable/fruit vendors, fish sellers, municipal personnel, newspaper boy, milkman, door delivery agents, etc. comprising of over 100 people, I did not come across even one case where any of them had contacted the virus. They all belong to the lower income group.

In other words, those who had taken the minimum recommended protection of wearing masks, washing hands and were exposed to the sun for most part of the day, did not contact the virus. The reason, probably the sun or could be the resistance, which is much stronger in their case.

Those, among family and friends, who did contact the virus, were in most cases in senior citizen group with co-morbidities. Those younger, also had co-morbidities. In other words, healthy people with active life style avoided the virus with protection. People with sedentary life style were more susceptible.

Let us question ourselves, is nature asking the following questions :-

• Why so much waste when there is poverty?
• Why is poverty co-existing with plenty?
• Why and how have wants multiplied?
• What made people stop talking to each other?
• Why we do not know our neighbors?
• Why do we live like strangers in a locality?
• Why does every toddler require a phone or tab?
• Why are our sea-life found with plastic in their tummy?
• Why do whales and dolphins drift ashore wrapped in plastic?
• Why are open spaces, parks, water bodies being claimed by builders?
• Why are we driving around in circles and not sharing our rides?
• There are hundred more relevant posers for ourselves! Why such apathy, why are we so indifferent? Is it not our planet.

This virus has once again shaken us, hopefully from our roots. In this new found world of ours with all kind of restrictions, lockdowns and change of lifestyle, we should learn a valuable lesson. A lesson which should be a lasting one. Written in indelible ink and never to be forgotten.

The lesson of appreciating plenty. The lesson of understanding that all that is crucial for sustaining life comes free. The lesson that we are dependent on each other. The lesson that any one and every one could be a friend or foe, without our knowing. The lesson that we are not master of our lives. The lesson that we are not controlling our destiny. The lesson that nature with a minuscule object could bring us down to our knees. The lesson that we need to connect with our loved ones. The lesson that we need to balance life. The lesson that we need to trust in divinity. The lesson that all our answers lies within our selves.

Dear readers, before I move on, I would like very much to read/hear your thoughts. Trust you have read my posts in sequence for a better grasp of my thought process and to appreciate my experiences.

Let us meet at our next post: THE TREE BAOBAB until then peace!