The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 disease has been carrying out its deadly mission in a systematic manner. It appears the virus’s game plan is to degrade one’s respiratory system first, which incidentally has the best abilities in the body to ward off foreign attacks to the body and trigger the production of immune cells and chemicals for the war against the invaders. Then having weakened and confused one’s defenses, the virus attacks other organs of the body. It is known that patients have suddenly died of kidney and liver failures too. This, definitely, is a wise virus with a strategic plan to finish its victims. Perhaps when not pre-selecting those it attacks, it is surely selecting those it kills; the elderly who are frail and those with underlying medical conditions.  

Italy had one of the worst infections to death ratios. There, shortage of ventilators got so acute at the peak of hospitalization that doctors were advised to make decisions on who gets allocated ventilators for assisted breathing based on age and previous medical history. In other words, doctors were helping the virus complete the selective killing of the old and the infirm. It is worth noting that New York also got to the same stage of ‘death prioritization’. And in New York, it turned out the majority of those who died were old, black and minorities with previous medical conditions. A lot of them were already in hospice care at nursing homes. It must be understood that these were heart-wrenching decisions made by doctors who were already constrained by inadequate facilities, and these decisions were already conditioned on the selective destructive attack of the coronavirus infection. Incidentally, the huge mortality rate of minorities in New York is under investigation.

Another group targeted by this coronavirus infection is the healthcare group. The very people that are meant to give care to the sick were earmarked for decimation as it were. Shocking. This trend is seen commonly in Europe; 61 doctors and healthcare workers had died in Italy alone out of 4,824 health workers who had been infected by March 30, 2020. Days later, Cuban doctors were flown into the country to save the Italian Healthcare from collapse, where thousands of healthcare workers are either quarantined or in self-isolation at home or hospitalized. In Spain, 5,400 or 14% of the 40,000 infected people in the country were healthcare staff. In France, 5 doctors have died from the virus infection. Britain and America are beginning to see similar patterns. So, how smart can a virus be? Its mission looks set to wipe out humanity.

At this stage, people all over the world are wandering about its genesis. It most certainly came from the pit of hell with one goal in mind, they reason. Others are looking at accidental discharge from a laboratory in China. Yet some others are looking at the Chinese love for bush meat, and herbal medications where all sorts of concoctions are made possible. But who do the Chinese say are responsible? Africans of course. Yes, it has to be. They are the only people who look like animals and with cells capable of mutations into viruses. I ask them, if that is true, why have the Chinese citizens in our continent not been infected since their sojourn in Africa? Why now in 2019? You know as I do that the pundits will have no credible explanations to improbable conspiracy theories.

I have said previously that this virus is nature made, not China made. There are evidences that our indiscriminate interaction with natural environments are letting loose all sorts of pathogens in the midst of bushfires, flash floods, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados, erosions, deforestation, and destruction of biodiversity. Almost all of these ills are results of climate change or exacerbate climate change.

It is equally important that we consider the effects of overpopulation of cities and their consequences. Presently, the world population is around 7.74 billion people. This is a lot of people. But there are enough resources on planet Earth to support all of us and much more if these resources are managed in sustainable manners. Development in many parts of the world tend to cluster around only economically viable cities leading to the creation of mega cities like New Delhi, Bombay, New York, Lagos, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Wuhan, and others. Due to inadequate planning, most of these cities have slums and poorly planned neighborhoods where personal and community hygiene are difficult to practice. These are hotbeds for pollution and the breeding of harmful pathogens that may create endemic infestations. On the other hand, if we consciously distribute economic centres, we will redistribute population growth centres. Yes, we may be taking up additional real estates in the process, we can mitigate for that with planting new trees and greens, creating smart cities, and adopting sustainable lifestyles.

While we are looking for the cure and vaccine against Covid-19, we must also take steps to stop similar pandemics from happening. The destruction to lives, personal livelihoods, national economies, and world economic order unleashed by SARS-CoV-2 has taught us one big lesson; we cannot afford to have many of these disruptions at any time. There is a distinct possibility that an efficacious vaccine may never be deployable for common use. Why is this? For one, we are seeing reinfection of recovered patients of Covid-19 in South Korea and China. We do not know yet, how we would react to a potential vaccine, or what the vaccine may do to the virus. So, if we do not have a vaccine for this or for any future pandemic, that reality would alter significantly our ways of life on Earth. The iterations of alterations are so numerous to contemplate.

One answer to these problems may then be for the world to return to the Paris Accord. This agreement so unanimously accented to by 193 countries of the world gives us a platform to live on Earth in a sustainable manner, not only for ourselves, but for all living creatures. We must try to respect all living things, plants, animals, man, and micro-organisms. Every one of them needs their space to thrive. We must live and let live. For now, we destroy habitats meant for us all. We chase every living thing away so that we can stand tall in triumph. Unknown to us they have a way of fighting back. For in the end they defeat us and consume us when we die and are buried. Where then lies our superior knowledge? It is time we tried other approaches. If we let the microbes do the selection, we may become extinct.