Corona virus

Our present circumstances have been profoundly shaped by persistent societal realities such
as entrenched racial and economic inequality, the proliferation of misinformation and the
anxieties about the ability of the world’s democracies to confront major crises. One such
crisis is the global pandemic “CORONA VIRUS”. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses
that can cause respiratory illness in humans. They get their name, “corona,” from the many
crown-like spikes on the surface of the virus. Their new strain, Covid-19, has taken the
entirety of world under its shade, making it a cosmopolitan outbreak.

“We are only at the beginning of this crisis, but it’s challenging us

in ways that are unprecedented in modern times, not least of which

because it is breaking everywhere at once.”

– CGAP’s Response to COVID-19

Since the virus has gained a lot of hype by now, social understanding will be vital in
apprehending the crisis, and charting a path forward. The word ‘virus’ gained its origin from
the Latin word ‘venome’ as it is generally associated with anything that is importance in
biology and are discussed under a branch called ‘virology’ by a virologist. Some viruses are
mild and are restricted in impact to only a small portion of mankind. Such viruses include
mumps, measles etc. and they don’t impact as a whole. Others are severe portion of human
begins to suffer at a time. Such viruses often end up being pandemics.

“Virus just breaks all the Rules.”

– Thomas Scott

A “pandemic is the worst – case scenario terminology used for the outbreak of disease that is
no longer under control. ‘Pandemic’ is a Greek word derivative. ‘Pandemic’ is a two word
compilation where ‘pan’ means ‘all’ and ‘demos’ means ‘people’. In the realm of infectious
disease, many pandemics emerged. Communicable diseases existed during mankind’s hunter-
gathering days which included malaria, leprosy etc. The more civilized humans became,
building cities and trade routes, the more likely pandemics became. Athens, Cyprian Plague.
Bubonic Plague, Ebola virus, Congo virus etc. became dominant from 5th to 20th century. The
Black Death pandemic eradicated one-third of the world’s population. At the start of the 21st
century, the SARS pandemic hit the world. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome started with
bats, spread to humans in China. China tried to suppress information regarding it. SARS had
a variant SARS-CoV1 that became prominent in 2003 but the Covid-19 pandemic is
originally the SARS-CoV2 variant.

“After all it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a PANADEMIC”.

– Margaret Chan
 Until recently, most people will never have heard of coronavirus. But they, and the
diseases they cause in humans and animals, have been recognized for over 50 years. They are
known to be natural and have an animal origin, through spillover infection. Phylogenetic
estimates that SARS – CoV2 arose in October, 2019. Evidence suggests that it descends from
a coronavirus that infects wild bats and spreads to humans through intermediary wildlife host.

“An inefficient virus kills to host.

A clever virus stays with its host.”

– James lovelock

Covid-19 is caused by a coronavirus strain that has not been previously found in
people. The first reported case appeared on 17th November, 2019 in Wuhan, China. But it
went unrecognized. Eight more cases appeared in December with researchers pointing to an
unknown virus. Many learned about Covid-19 when ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang defied
government orders, and released safety information to other doctors. The following day,
china informed WHO. Li died form Covid-19 just over a month later. Without a vaccine
available, it spread beyond the Chinese borders to nearly every country in the world. On 11th
March, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the Covid-19 virus was
officially a pandemic after barreling through 114 countries in three months infecting over
118,000 people. And the spread wasn’t anywhere near finished. As the proverb says:

“Don’t touch an electrical shock victim,

because it might make you another victim.”

By December, 2019, the spread of virus was almost entirely driven by human to
human transmission. The number of cases in Hubei gradually increased, reaching 60 by 20
December. During the early stage of outbreak, the number of cases doubled approximately
every seven and a half days. A report indicated human transmission, and recommended
personal protective equipment of health due to COVID’s pandemic potential. Who declared it
a public health emergency of international concern. By this time, the outbreak spread by a
factor of 100 to 200 times.

“We can’t predict what a virus we have never seen will do.”

– Marc Lipsitch

Humans appear to be capable of spreading the virus to some other animals, a type of disease
transmission called ‘zooanthroponsis’ cats, lions, tigers, minks and other animals tested
positive for corona. A study on domesticated animals inoculated with the virus found that the
cats and ferrets appear to be highly susceptible to the disease. Many primate sanctuaries
presume transmission form human cases, human negligence is proving to be a pivotal factor
when it comes to endangering animals.
 “The key to growth is the introduction of higher

dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”

– Lao Tzu

Coronaviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses, about 120 nanometers in diameter. They are
susceptible to mutation and recombination, and are therefore very diverse. There are about 40
varieties that interact with humans and other animals by contamination of meat from wild
animals as sold in China’s meat market.

“The fact that there was no catastrophic pandemic

in recent history does not mean there won’t be
any. And we are certainly not prepared for the
next one.”
– Bill Gates

The number of people infected changes daily. Organizations that collect this
information, including WHO and CDC (centers for disease control) are gathering information
and learning more about the outbreak. As of now 163,795,665 people have been infected in
the world (approx. 109M) out of which 3.4M have met their eternal fate. In Pakistan out of
880 K infected people 19,617 confirmed deaths. In India, the pandemic has grown furious in
the third wave, killing thousands of people daily. The number of infected cases per day
surges 400 thousands a day, a record-making number. Despite vaccination, the number of
infected cases has crossed 25M and deaths have gone over 275K.

Several measures are commonly taken into account when qualifying mortality. These
numbers vary by region and over time and are influenced by the volume of testing, healthcare
system quality, treatment options, time since initial outbreak and the population
characteristics such as age, gender, etc. The mortality rate reflects the number of deaths
within a specific demographic group divided by the total population of that demographic
group. The highest mortality rate has been recorded in the U.S.

“Mortality applies to every aspect of life. The fear of

Death is the driving fear of life.”

– Nick Tosches

Covid-19 spreads from person to person mainly through the respiratory route after an infected
person coughs, sneezes, signs, talks or breathes. A new infection occurs when virus-
containing particles exhaled by an infected person, either respiratory droplets or aerosols, gets
into the mouth, nose or eyes of other person. Although it is considered possible, there is no
direct evidence of the virus being transmitted by skin to skin contact. A person can get it
indirectly by touching a contaminated surface or object before touching their own facial
features. It is not known to spread though waste-water, breast milk or via animals can
contract the virus from humans. It very rarely transmits from mother to baby during
pregnancy.
 “In reality, we are all travelers, even explorers of morality.”

– Thomas Monson

Symptoms of Covid-19 are variable, ranging from mild to severe illness. Common
ones include headache, loss of smell and taste, nasal congestion and rhinorrhea, cough,
muscle pain, sore throat, fever, diarrhea and breathing difficulties. People with the some
infection may have different signs and they may change overtime. At least a third of the
people who are infected with the virus do not develop noticeable prodromal at any point in
time. These asymptomatic carriers or other pre-symptomatic ones tend not to get tested and
can be the cause of the viral spread. The median delay for Covid-19 is four to five days. Most
people recover from the acute phase.

“An inefficient virus kills its host. A clever virus stays with it.”

– James Lovelock

There is no specific, effective treatment or cure for this ailment. Thus, the cornerstone
of management of Covid-19 is supportive care which includes treatment to relieve symptoms,
fluid therapy, oxygen support and prone positioning as needed. If you are not hospitalized or
don’t need supplemental oxygen, no specific antiviral or immune-therapy is recommended
Depending on the severity of the Covid infection, the patient may need supplemental oxygen,
mechanical ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation.

“A correct diagnosis is three-fourths the remedy.”

– M.K. Gandhi

Currently, only one drug has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approval. FDA also has granted emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma to treat
the virus. This is the blood donated from people who have been the confirmed cases of
Covid-19 and have recovered. A Covid-19 vaccine is intended to provide acquired immunity
against SARS-Cov-2. Prior to the pandemic, work to develop a vaccine against coronavirus
diseases like SARS and MERS established knowledge about their structure and function; this
information enabled accelerated development of various vaccine technologies during early
2020. These vaccine samples have to undergo various phase-trials. In phase III trials, several
vaccines demonstrate efficacy as high as 95% in preventing symptomatic infections. As of
Feb 2021, 10 vaccines are authorized for public use including Pfizer, sinopharm, sputnik V
and Astra Zeneca etc. By December 2020, more than 10 billion vaccine doses have been pre-
ordered by countries, with about half of the doses purchased by high-income countries
comprising 14% of the world’s population.

“It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to

get one single remedy.”

– Proverb
 At present only preventive measures can prove to be fruitful against such a deadly
out-break: Social distancing includes infections control actions intended to slow the spread of
the disease by minimizing close contract between individuals i.e. stay six feet away from
others whenever possible, wear a cloth mask that covers your mouth and nose when around
others, wash your hands often. (If soap is not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at
least 60% alcohol), avoid crowded indoor spaces or bring in outdoor air as much as possible,
stay self-isolated at home if you are feeling ill with symptoms that could be Covid-19 and
also clean or disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

“If you hear about it (an outbreak of plague) in a

land, do not go it; but if a plague breaks out in a

country where you are staying, do not run from it.”

– Holy Prophet (PUBH)

Person at greatest risk of contracting Covid-19 are the ones who line in or have recently
traveled to any area with ongoing active spread, ones who had close contract with a person
who has a laboratory-confirmed or a suspected case of these Covid-19 virus, and people over
age 60 who have pre-existing medical conditions or a weakened immune system.

“A virus’s mission is to make as many copies of itself as possible.”

– Richard Brodie

Some scientists fear in the first place that he Covid medication, although beneficial,
many increase testosterone level in females (consequently growing beards) or may turn
Homo sapiens into crocodiles. After the initial outbreak of Covid-19, misinformation
regarding the origin, scale, prevention, treatment and other aspect of the disease rapidly
spread online which created fuss among the public.

“Don’t believe in everything you read on the internet

just because there is a picture with a quote next to it.”

– George Washington

The spread of Covid-19 has left national economics and businesses counting the casts, as
governments struggle with new lockdown measures to tackle the situation. Big shifts in stock
markets can affect the value of pensions or individual savings accounts. The FTSE
(Financial) times Stock Exchange) dropped 14.3% in 2020, its worst performance since 2008.
Many people have lost their jobs or seen their incomes cut. Unemployment rates have
increased across major economies. The IMF estimates that the global economy shrunk by
4.4% in 2020. The travel industry has been badly damaged, with airlines cutting flights and
customers canceling business trips and holidays. The hospitality sector has been hit hard,
bankrupt. Retail football has seen unprecedented falls as shoppers stayed at home. The
pharmaceutical companies stood first as governments around the world pledged billions of
dollars and their shares shot up.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor

the most intelligent that survives. It is one that is the most

adaptable to change.

– Charles Darwin

When the Covid-19 pandemic reached Pakistan in late February 2020, it was expected
to hit the country hard. The concern was that with poor health and nutrition indicators and the
fiscal restraints imposed by an ongoing IMF stabilization program, Pakistan would be
unprepared to respond. In response, Pakistan intensified it lockdown. Despite the limitations,
the government also played a role to provide health facilities, income support and business
financing interventions to mitigate the economic hardships. Currently, vaccination has also
been launched in the country. In the very first phase, the Front Line Workers – Doctor,
Nurses, Paramedical Staff, and Pharmacists have been vaccinated. Then the endangered
group i.e. the people above 60 years have been inoculated. Now the vaccine is available for
the group of people aging 30 years and above. Moreover, in contrast to the various countries,
the ravages of pandemic have been less drastic in Pakistan due to the effective steps taken by
the government and responsible behavior of the people, which has been commended all over
the world. However, virus is not over yet; precautionary measures and careful behavior are
the need of the hour. It is impending like bad weather and cause havoc on the people any
time. Nonetheless, it is hoped that the world will get rid of it soon.

“We are in this together – and we will get through this, together.”

– Antonio Guterres.

The year 2020 has been a dark phase throughout. Everyone had been though
depression and suffocating times. On the way, we last many precious lives and guarantied
ourselves. The city lights were replaced with pale lamps of loneliness. Besides all this, we
must be grateful to Almighty for our lives. All we can do to ease the passage is to remain
united, helping one another out and keep praying for that day of sunlight when we will be
free to toss our masks in the air and hug each other with gratitude.