As deadly as it may be, and aside from the negative economic footprints it leaves in the shores of time, Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 leaves a lot of unanswered questions that linger on the minds of many.
Yes! Its advent has reignited and deepen, at the same time, our sense of care and support for each other, a crucial trait of man that the heat of life leading to heightened self-centredness almost washed away.
Faith-based organizations, corporate bodies, and governments around the globe have been awakened to the real call to mankind – love for all, hatred for none, as stipulated in the old books.
Even more interestingly, the talk of technological advancement in all spheres of life is held all over the world asCOVID-19 begets a necessity for inventions. Nonetheless, can these salutary lessons teach us by COVID-19 make it up for the losses it has inflicted on the whole world? Will there ever be praise songs to sing some time in life for this seemingly invisible “monster”?
Agreeably, the ravages of this pandemic far outweigh the inconspicuous inherent good that is fleetingly visible to few eyes who even less trumpet it. When preparing for the future, it won't be to welcome the next pandemic in peace but to wage an exuberant war against the near occasion of any such pandemic. In fact, countries would build ammunitions in wait of a war that might never be fought i.e. a cold war against an “invisible common enemy”.
Unfortunately, the ruling continually questions their leaders whether they would able to recognize timeously when the next enemy strikes in order to launch an effective defense. This question arises because many believe that this pandemic was mishandled ab initio, to wit, leaders of the world were taken off guard. Is this assertion legitimate?
Then the big question is “who failed first for who to fail next in that order for the pandemic to strike us that hard?”. Who is to blame? This question has gained currency on the international stage and by far resulted in a plethora of conspiracy theories churned out by many experts.
While some writers exonerate China of any blame and rather chastise the World Health Organizations (WHO) of the United Nations (UN) for failure in their machinery to first detect and eventually establish the needed protocols for mitigating the spread of the virus at an early stage, and rather reluctantly approaching the menace initially as a “Chinese-Virus” or problem”, others also passionately indict China for been selfish and parochially whimsical by not sharing information with WHO.
The first school of thought dwells on the power of the UN and for that matter WHO to fish for whatever information they needed if they meant business. In fact, the mass evacuation of the citizens of the US and the EU (European Union) from China tend to be used as the chief evidence of selfish approach by the USand the EU extended to the operations of WHO.
Many of this assertion believe that WHO and the world at large, did very little to help China curtail the spread of the virus because it was initially branded as a“China menace”. In fact, this proposition was exuberantly pronounced, without equivocation, in the words of H. E. Donald Trump “Chinese virus”, a statement that occasioned a fierce rebuttal and discomfort from a lot of international political commentators and the media and by far, concretized the position under review.
Perhaps, if the world had approached the menace tactfully and rallied behind China with all the necessary resources at their disposal, the virus would have been effectively contained in China alone and its impact mitigated effectively.
In fact, the escalation of the virus spread is rather attributed vehemently to the mass evacuation by these powerful countries as a selfish approach to protecting their citizenry even against expert advice from astute persons and organizations including WHO herself. Invariably, most reviews of the transportation of the virus from China to all the other parts of the world ascribe to the mass evacuation by the US and EU as one major engine for the problem the world finds herself in today.
All countries who subscribed to this self-seeking approach had one perception – to show off the robust health system they possess and a mere showcase of an insatiable desire for political supremacy. Rather, on the contrary, this approach came to reveal the inherent shortfalls and lacunas in their health system.
The world superpower, US demonstrated a perfect example of what is presented here. The GNBC reported on the 6th of March, 2020 the deputy director for the Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Satish Pillai who treated the first COVID-19 patient that he revealed that the virus circulated unchecked for weeks before the first detection.
This revelation was corroborated by the report of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci (a top government scientist involved in the fight against COVID-19) to Congress that technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, and lapses in leadership culminating into the absence of robust screening caused the uncontrollable upsurge in the infections.
Indisputably, the world leaders, especially, the world superpowers failed to choose a concerted effort over self-projection. And so, as for most of the world’s health experts, the global pandemic got out of control not solely because of late detection, even though others protest, but the failure on the world’s part to work with a unified front. In the words of David S. Evangelista, President and Managing Director of the Special Olympics Europe Eura, as reported by “Euractiv news portal”, “COVID-19 has made it clear that the world can only win this war if it operates as one unified force” is a displayed a failed approach adopted by the world and its leaders.
Truthfully, the second school of thought, as it may seem, can make a legitimate, that China indeed willfully, with the same selfish posture decided to conceal the severity of the COVID-19 at the time in secrecy. Indeed, even though official records made known worldwide suggest that the first case was detected in December, 2019, an astute magazine in Hong Kong, the Guardian published an article that contracted this report.
The article by Helen Davidson revealed an official document that recorded the firstCOVID-19 cases rather on 17th October, 2019. If this is true then the China Communist Party must have done a great disservice to the world. Indeed, the WHO had a tough time gaining access to vital information in the early days of COVID-19,time from the Chinese government to enable the organization to understand and appreciate the nature of the virus and the rate of infection so it could be in a better position to advise and develop protocols for countries that had not yet recovered any cases.
Lately in December, 2019 the Chinese government found it necessary to report to the WHO obviously at a time when they could no longer conceal the brunt of the pandemic in secret. In fact, the posture ofChina in dealing with the WHO and the rest of the world was internationally unacceptable to the extent that, the doctor who blew the whistle on the pandemic, Dr. Li Wenliang was prosecuted wrongly. This clearly indicates the willful and premeditated disposition of China to deceive the entire world which flies the face of international best practice.
In fact, China acted in bad faith to deceive the rest of the world which probably made the rest of the world relax on their nerves. Granted that the first school of thought has a legitimate stance, the disposition of China to conceal the severity of the outbreak in secrecy blindfolded the world, and hence the wrongful steps are taken to curtail the outbreak such as the mass evacuation.
Again, the self-sufficient posture to WHO by China again did not prickle the world to help hence viewing the menace as a “China virus or problem.
Juxtaposing these two stands, it can clearly be nuanced that the world’s posture resulting in the wrongful approaches to tackle the menace and the eventual escalation of the global pandemic was caused, to a very large extent, by the improper international conduct and selfish approach. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that there are several legal suits against China on various counts.
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