It seems that the coronavirus, called Covid-19, has scared the world. It has become the bogeyman of the 21st century. At first, he scared the medical profession with how quickly it spread and killed people. They, in turn, scared governments around the world into drastic measures to go into various degrees of lockdown. It has been nothing more than a socio-economic disaster for most countries. And the way the media continues to report on this virus infection is causing more unnecessary panic, chaos and confusion among the public.
In my previous article titled “Corona: The Making of the Bogeyman,” I pointed out how a frightened mind is incapable of rational thought. I also pointed out how a bureaucratic mind is also incapable of such thinking. So it’s clear to me that a frightened bureaucrat would be doubly incapable of making a rational decision. This fact is evident from what we have seen in the bureaucratic action taken by governments around the world.
What shocks and disappoints me the most is the medical profession and the role it is playing. You are supposed to take care of people’s physical and mental health, but you are helping the government to make people’s lives more miserable. They don’t seem to appreciate the fact that saving lives at all costs isn’t the only thing that matters. One has to take socioeconomic costs into account in our decision making; otherwise, our actions become self-defeating and irresponsible. Millions of people have lost their jobs and millions of businesses have gone bankrupt. How can we ignore the mental and physical side effects on the population of bureaucratic government action that creates poverty? Poverty becomes fertile ground for an increase in crime, violence, drug abuse and suicides, etc. Remember that the brunt of all these measures falls on individuals, not government employees, who are mostly not affected financially.
In my opinion, I consider confinement as an inhuman action. Locking people who live in high rises for six weeks is like sentencing them to solitary confinement in their cells. Also, how can we justify locking people on a cruise ship for days through no fault of their own, just because they have a case of coronavirus on board? Lockdown can only be justified if the measures we take kill or eliminate the virus; otherwise we are just grabbing the tiger by the tail.
If we examine all the measures we have taken so far, we will find that they are panic measures. They do not remove or kill the virus. The lockdown only slows down the spread of the virus. The nature of all virus infections is to spread. So once we lift the lockdown, this virus will spread. The contagion curve has to rise. We have to appreciate that this coronavirus is here to stay and we will have to learn to live with it in the same way that we are doing with the flu virus.
So what does the future hold? Do we go into lockdown every time the contagion curve rises? Do we close our schools and workplaces every time someone tests positive? Are we still scared and subject to some bureaucratic control until we find a cure?
It is easy for countries with relatively small and spread out populations like Australia and New Zealand to claim that they have been successful in managing this virus with containment measures. However, in densely populated countries with large populations like India and Europe, it is certainly not a practical proposition.
So there has to be a better way to handle this problem. If I were in a rural city in the interior and a case of coronavirus was presented to me for treatment, I wonder, what would I do? Not having any means of diagnosis at my disposal, I would have treated that patient in the same way that I would have treated a case of influenza. Would this have resulted in any different outcome for my patient or me?
It can be seen that all these tests of the virus in the population can be academically desirable; however, the way the media reports it should be a matter of concern for all of us trying to improve our mental health. It is scaring the public and causing unnecessary anxiety and alarm.
Perhaps we can learn from our animal friends how they manage to live in peace with all the predators around them since the beginning of time. If we look at the buffaloes and the lions, we see that the lions scare the buffaloes by chasing them. Once the lions catch the weakest, the buffalo stop running. They begin to graze in a relaxed manner, knowing that the lions will not attack them until they are hungry again. They don’t stay scared.
I view all the viruses lurking in our atmosphere as predators waiting to pounce on us like hungry lions and tigers. Generally, a healthy person will resist a virus infection depending on the strength of their immune system. But once any mental or physical factor weakens our immune system, we can become prey to any such virus. Therefore, the responsibility falls on each individual in society to maintain a level of fitness that protects the person.
However, we have do-gooders in society who want to save us from ourselves, such as the medical profession and the government. They want to show us and show us that they can save human lives, no matter the cost. There is, of course, a political motive in all this. Nobody wants to die, so nobody is going to object to someone who is going to protect us. How can anyone oppose such a noble cause when it comes to saving lives? Politicians and the medical profession become our heroes and get our votes.
Yes, it is relatively easy to save lives and become heroes if we think bureaucratically and ignore the negative consequences of our action. But there are greater responsibilities attached to the jobs of our medical and political leaders than simply trying to save human lives if they cared to think. Suppose you are in charge of a rescue boat overloaded with people. You know that if you put one more person on board, the ship is going to capsize and sink. There are people at sea who keep begging to be rescued. Do you have a choice? Please think. Will you feel like a hero? Do you still believe in saving lives at any cost?
The way I see it, we have to accept the coronavirus and treat it in the same way as the influenza virus. The world can’t afford to stay scared. In my mind, there is no such thing as the future. The future is what we create through the actions we take in the present. If we don’t act now, our present becomes the future.
Are we going to reevaluate our approach to the coronavirus? Are we going to be scared? Will our medical and political leaders realize their responsibilities? Are we going to continue with this bureaucratic madness?
