Beginning in March of 2020, with some hints in February, the world was essentially stunned by a pandemic caused by SARS-Cov2 virus, a so-called “Corona” virus. I find it humbling that humans, those superior beings on Planet Earth, have been repeatedly vanquished by the smallest, most primitive, proto-lifeform. My first thoughts when Covid 19 was wiping the floor with New York City and Italy was it was life imitating art where in H.B. Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” the Martians with their superior vehicles and death rays were beaten by Earth’s germs. Now, in 2020, it looked like Trump, who seemed to be skating toward reelection was going to be upstaged by SARS Cov-2 along with Duterte, Bolsanaro and Putin. How apt.
Viruses are interesting. Like lifeforms, they are made essentially of organic compounds. But, unlike lifeforms, they are incapable of reproduction on their own. They must have a host cell or organism in order to propagate. Yet, they are by far, the most numerous of organic entities on Earth. So, clearly, they have found a way to compensate for their inability to propagate by making use of lifeform cells to do the work for them. We have anthropomorphized viruses. Giving them intent and cleverness when, in fact, they are nothing more than very primitive clusters of RNA and proteins. Given enough viruses, and opportunistic conditions, and enough time, viruses have evolved that can proliferate quite well by freeloading in the bodies and cells of lifeforms, humans included.
With respect to humans, their vulnerability to viral hijack is directly related to their transformation from hunter/gatherers to husbandry. As soon as they stopped moving and staying mostly with their own kind, and began to settle and surround themselves with goats, sheep, cows and chickens, they opened the door for viruses to make the leap from animals to humans…and they did.
As I understand it, some viruses in the process of hijacking lifeforms and their cells undergo mutations quite readily. That’s one of the reasons that we have different flu viruses each year. Last year’s flu virus have morphed. So, it’s never a case of wiping out a virus population so much as it is a contest to anticipate what is coming and finding ways to bolster our body’s defense mechanisms against it. That’s what’s going on with Covid-19. All the pending vaccines are based on detecting the presence of SARS Cov-2 and bolstering our body’s immune system tools to fight it off. If SARS Cov-2 turns out to be like influenza virus, and it changes substantially from year to year, we will be getting multiple vaccine injections. If it’s more like measles, where the virus is pretty constant in organic structure, then we may get by with less frequent vaccine shots. We still don’t know as of September 2020.
What’s interesting is that pandemics have been on the horizon for years, now. And, humans have known of ways to mitigate their progress. Think MERS, SARS and Ebola. By testing, tracing and isolating, we can break the chain and flatten the infection curve. But, it appears, China was reluctant to share early details of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan; and Trump and his ilk, facing reelection, opted to downplay the risks and delay preparations. And, here we are. The USA, the country of American Exceptionalism, the leader in technology and medical innovations, ends up with one of the world’s highest infection and death totals within months of the outbreak. As it now stands, in September 2020, US citizens are unwelcome in many countries for fear of Covid carriers, and countries like South Korea, New Zealand, and even Vietnam make the US look like chumps. Thank you, GOP and your (ugh) president.
In just six months the world has undergone profound change in the wake of Covid. People do not congregate. People do not hug. People do not shake hands. We maintain physical distance. We wear masks. We avoid traveling. We don’t go out to eat, or to a movie. When (and if) we subdue Covid with an effective vaccine, will the world return to pre-Covid ways of being? Or, will we remember these six months and see handshaking, hugging and congregating as health risks. We’ll see.