By Suresh Rai, November 12, 2020, Needless to say that COVID-19 pandemic has forced all the human beings across the world into a kind of hibernation which has been termed in a multitude of ways. For instance, ‘’lockdown’’, ‘’stay-indoors-orders’’, ‘’shut-down’’ and so on and so forth. These terms sounded quite bizarre initially. However, these expressions have been part of our daily lingua franca these days. And obviously, this unprecedented global health crisis has triggered an enormous amount of mental trauma and distress amongst the people, particularly the aspiring youths. And most people seem to have used up all their patience and forbearance as this pandemic has been dragging on and it is likely to tarry for months on end. With the number of infectedcases and death toll escalating in Nepal too, it is quite natural for us to feel mentally distressed and distraught. However, one thing you should always bear on your mind is that whatever has a beginning has its end for sure.As a matter of fact, this coronavirus pandemic is not the only pandemic that has struck the earth. If you look at the history of pandemic, the first pandemic can be traced back to 430 B.C. in Athens. The earliest pandemic that was recorded and known to human beings occurred during the Peloponnesian war. Close to two thirds of the population of Athens including that of Libya, Ethiopia, and Egypt had died from this plague. Likewise, the world was hard hit by another pandemic in 165 A.D. and it was called Antonine Plague. In 250 A.D. Cyprian plague struck theworld. In the same way, Justinian Plague killed about 50 million people in 541 A.D. In 11th century, millions of people succumbed to leprosy. The outbreak of yet another pandemic ‘’ The Black Death’’ took place in 1350. The Columbian exchange was another pandemic detected in 1492. Similarly, in 1665, another fatal pandemic ‘’ The Great Plague of London victimized the people. Likewise, in 1817,the first cholera pandemic took place. This illness which was the small intestine infection first originated in Russia, where one million people died as a result of thisdisease. The ‘’ Third Plague Pandemic’’ hit the human kind in 1855. It had its outbreak in China, and moved to India and Hong Kong. It had claimed 15 million victims. Similarly, Fiji Measles pandemic happened in 1875 and it killed 40,000 people in Fiji. Russian Flu which took place in 1889 claimed 360,000 people. In the same way, Spanish flu outbreak took place in 1918. It was first observed in Europe, the USA, and some parts of Asia. This fatal pandemic killed 50 million people a little over a hundred years ago.
Similarly, Asian flu in 1957 resulted in around 1.1 deaths globally. In 1981, HIV AIDS was first observed and it is still killing thousands of people. Similarly, in 2003, SARS pandemic took place in China, which claimed 774 people. In December 2013, Ebola virus pandemic killed thousands of people in some African countries. And in 2019, COVID-19 pandemic originated in China and has badly affected the whole world.It goes to show that pandemics are not something strange. Human beings have lived through such fatal epidemics throughout the history. And since the outbreak of coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, it has wreaked havoc across the globe. Every aspect of life has been worst hit by this deadly disease. All sectors have beenbadly affected by it. Health, economy, education, social environment, and trade have been worst hit. As of today, over 1.14 million people have lost their lives to this fatal illness while 41.7 million cases have been registered worldwide. There has been a colossal economic downturn and the world economy has gone into the worst recession owing to this pandemic. Similarly, all the students across the worldhave been out of school for almost a year. Social life has been awfully disrupted as we need to physical distance ourselves to avoid the virus transmission.
The business sector has literally incurred loss worth trillions of dollars. For this reason, the global scenario looks overwhelmingly dismal and gloomy.As far as Nepal is concerned, initially we didn’t have many cases and fatalities. Nonetheless, there has been a significant upsurge in COVID-19 cases and death toll. And I feel that it will lead to the worst case scenario if the government and the individuals don’t put preventative measures in place on time.The people, especially youths, had apparently made multitude of plans and roadmaps for their future. However, their dreams have come crashing down ephemerally thanks to this pandemic. And at this point, it is certainly natural for them to feel mentally stressed and undergo some kind of mental trauma. And everyone is likely to suffer mental distress as our future is in limbo or hangs in the balance. That’s why I offer a suggestion that you should not stress yourself much over what will happen tomorrow, so you should just take it one day at a time.
Frankly speaking, I’ve discovered that there are too many conspiracy theories surrounding coronavirus going viral in social media platforms and we have been consuming them in one way or another. So my advice is that you should never believe in such pieces of disinformation because there’s an interesting Chinese proverb’’ Muddy waters make it easy to catch fish.’’ In other words, some people are intrinsically intent on taking an advantage of turbulent times. You should rely on the authentic information provided by WHO, BBC, etc.I have even found some people arguing that coronavirus is nothing serious. But thisis a stupid logic. While millions of people have succumbed to COVID-19, how canone argue that it is nothing serious? For this reason, you should comply with safetyprotocols implemented by the government. Don’t be too much in a haste to get on with your life at this point as I always do believe in having the highest level of patience and forbearance.Meanwhile, I would argue that nobody should downplay the severity of coronavirus. For example, the US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed this pandemic and now the US and Brazil are bearing the brunt of this. For this reason, don’t take it for granted since coronavirus is life-threatening. Now against all odds, a silver lining is likely to be seen in COVID-19 pandemic clouds since two companies; Pfizer and BioNTech have developed coronavirus vaccine which, the companies claim and a preliminary analysis shows, prevents more than 90% of people from contracting COVID-19. While the long drawn-out struggle against this invisible foe still persists, we may be able to keep our fingers crossed as this newly developed coronavirus shot will do away with this formidable enemy sooner rather than later. The COVID-19 jab which is still in the phase 3 clinical trial could be a landmark achievement and a watershed moment forthe humanity provided that it works wonders. While it is certain that this global health crisis is still far from over and we aren’t out of the woods yet, we can be optimistic about the vaccine that could be up for grabs pretty soon. And kudos to the scientists who have literally worked their fingers to the bone to achieve this incredible milestone.
Taking everything into consideration, we’re all up against this crisis, so we must have an unwavering faith that we’ll get through this pandemic if we confront it patiently. I do believe that we will be able to cope with it effectively and emerge victorious in our battle against this virus. However, along the way, we should not lose our patience and fall victim to mental disorder and trauma. Just the way the Sun dispels the darkness, the medication and the vaccine that is now in the clinical phase 3 trial will potentially cure the whole world of this deadly illness. For this reason, I appeal to all the people not to exhaust your patience and forbearance during this pandemic.
(Suresh Rai is a freelance writer and poet based in Kathmandu. He tweets at www.twitter.com/SureshRai1For feedback, you can email him at suresh.kingmaker@yahoo.com)
