Once upon a time there was a pandemic....!

How swiftly does human memory seek to push once-in-a-century matters of global magnitude and of life and death into the bin of oblivion. Only four years ago, the world faced a fearsome new corona virus which was very infectious. It spread rapidly across the planet and led to a large number of deaths. It had originated in Wuhan, China but the Chinese were chary in revealing information except that it was initially believed that the primary infection was most likely carried in bats from where it jumped to human beings. Later, it was also said that it could have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. China formally informed the World Health Organisation (WHO) on December 31, 2019 about the new virus which was causing pneumonia and death in many cases. The WHO is accused of not showing sufficient purposefulness and alacrity in the matter for it did not declare it as a pandemic till March 11, 2020. It named the virus as covid 19.

It is striking that the fourth anniversary of this ominous declaration went almost universally un-noticed. The US which suffered a million deaths because of the pandemic is focused on presidential re-match between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in November this year. There was hardly any emphasis of covid 19 and its trail of death in its mainstream media. India which was also shaken by the pandemic is waiting for the Election Commission (as I write these lines) to announce the date of the Lok Sabha elections and no newspaper of note thought of recalling the distress and disruption which all the people, especially the poorest among them, suffered in the wake of the pandemic. The government declared a national lockdown to stem the spread of the pandemic on March 24. Lakhs of migrant workers headed home travelling hundreds of kilometers by any means, including on foot. They suffered terribly.

International attention has also been on the Ukraine war and the tough, if not brutal Israeli, reaction on the people of Gaza after Hamas’s terrorist attack on the Jewish state on October 7 last year. More than 31000 people have died in Gaza as the Israelis seek to wipe out Hamas. These deaths and those in Ukraine are tragic because even one death or injury on account of terrorism and war is one death or injury too many. But in terms of numbers these fade into insignificance when compared to the toll extracted by covid 19. According to present estimates over 7 million people died because of the virus.

When covid 19 began it back brought back memories of the Spanish flu which hit the world in 1918-20 and led to between 50-100 million deaths. At that stage the world’s population was around 1.8 billion. India was particularly badly hit by the Spanish flu. There were no known cures for the virus but later research showed that in places where basic hygiene and social distancing was practiced the death rates where not as high. At the beginning of covid 19 medical science had naturally no protocols to deal with the new virus. It also relied on social distancing, masks and hand hygiene. However, there was a determination to find vaccines as soon as possible and it is a tribute to advances in medicine that vaccines were developed within a year of covid 19’s beginning and they were then mass produced and administered.

2021 was a particularly difficult year because of the Delta variant. Among other countries India was also badly hit by it but by the end of 2021 the situation came under control in India because of the rapidity and skill with which the vaccination programme was carried out by all agencies concerned. To the unknown doctors and medical staff and scientists who gave their all, including in some cases their lives, to treat covid 19 patients and to vaccinate the people the nation owes a debt of gratitude. It would be appropriate if memorials are erected in the nation’s also states and union territories capitals to honour their contribution. They deserve no less.

Covid 19 brought the best and the worst in the international community. Many countries with the resources, including India, helped those who did not have medical equipment. They sent these and vaccines too. This was also prudent on their part for a pandemic can only be controlled if the infection wanes worldwide. What also helped is that following the Delta variant, other variants of covid 19 became less deadly. However, medical science is still grappling with the side effects of the virus in some people whom it infected.

Where the global community failed was in coordinating a common programme of managing the pandemic. Major countries followed different policies. These ranged from China’s ‘no-covid’ policy which resulted in frequent lock downs of different areas to other countries which pursued approaches allowing their populations to develop immunities even while carrying out vaccinations. The economic impact of China’s policy on the global economy was adverse because it badly shook supply chains. This resulted in many multinational companies taking decisions to diverse their manufacturing bases.

What is now needed is global cooperation to prepare plans of actions to be taken immediately as pathogens which are capable of causing pandemics are spotted. This will require all countries to be more open and in some, including China, to control their wet markets and laboratories better. In any event, it is necessary to ascertain how covid 19 originated. That requires far greater Chinese cooperation with the WHO then it has extended so far.