"As of this writing, only Antarctica, among the world's continents, has not been invaded by the coronavirus."
The world, it seems, has finally met its match. It is the coronavirus series 2019, or COVID19 per the WHO nomenclature, or simply the Wuhan (China) severe pneumonia.
The coronavirus is on the way to infecting up to 100,000 people, or more, and kill at least 5,000, within two months—unless the world is able to come up with a cure, or develop, at least a vaccine. A vaccine could take eight to 18 months; a cure, probably even longer. So far, the prognosis for ending the coronavirus crisis is dim.
What makes the virus so fearsome is that it invades your lungs. As a parasite, it feeds on your lungs and destroys them, molecule by molecule. With your lungs destroyed, you cannot breathe. Since you cannot breathe, you die.
So expect the coronavirus to criss-cross from country to country, continent to continent, with the enthusiasm, vigor and dynamism of – a virus. As of this writing, only Antarctica, among the world’s continents, has not been invaded by the coronavirus.
The enemy is invisible. Imagine a grain of sand. Reduce that to one over 10,000. This makes all those face masks, whether the N95, or the surgical variety, utterly useless.
Being invisible, the coronavirus is an awesome enemy. It is a mutation that originated from animals which in turn was ingested by humans. Talk about the ascendancy of the species. Man, it seems, is not the dominant specie, after all, despite its being endowed with extraordinary intelligence, a soul, and now an endangered quality, a conscience.
Not all the world’s greatest military powers and biggest economies—run as they are by tyrants and pseudo-democrats—can cope with it, despite their vast nuclear arsenal, their tremendous military firepower, their so-called enviable R and D, and their limitless wealth.
No nuclear weapon or even an ordinary Ca. 45, Kalashnikov, or Armalite, or IED, can kill such an enemy as the coronavirus. To be sure, the coronavirus is not about to end civilization on earth as hordes of Terminators from a faraway planet could do in the movies.
Still, Donald Trump of the United States, Xi Jinping of China, and Vladimir Putin of Russia are in panic. America’s Centers for Disease Control has practically admitted the nation’s resources cannot cope with a coronavirus epidemic that is now the full makings of a pandemic.
As an enemy, the coronavirus has employed the classic divide and rule of a marauding conqueror. It has made nations suspicious of each other. The virus began in China, the world’s fastest-growing economy in the last 30 years. But the country that rescued 800 million people from poverty in just 20 years does not know what to do.
The coronavirus is closing borders faster and more effectively than Donald Trump can do with Mexico. The virus has made mincemeat of friendship and cooperation treaties, trade deals, peace agreements, and regional military pacts like the NATO and SEATO.
It has made once-good friends mistrust each other and future enemies. The Americans think the coronavirus is a Chinese germ warfare gone wrong. The Chinese think the coronavirus is an American research gone naughty—on the scale of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recent reporting said a third bomb was scheduled during World War II on Japan by the military but the US President then said no.
China has become the world’s pariah. Nobody wants to go to China. And nearly all Chinese are not welcome, nearly everywhere. The Chinese tourists, numbering 140 million a year, are the richest tourists. They spend close to $2,000 per capita whenever they travel. Even the Chinese of Hong Kong and Mexico are banned. President Duterte banned the Chinese from Taiwan for a few days but relented when told that there are more coronavirus cases in Singapore, another Chinese capital, than Taipei, and yet Singapore is not banned.
Next on the global blacklist is South Korea. The US is thinking of withdrawing troops, en masse, from South Korea. This could leave the border with North Korea and China lightly defended, and create fear and loathing in Japan and Taiwan, and even Russia.
When Italy reported having coronavirus cases from zero to 300 in three days, Austria quickly tightened its borders, targeting trains from the country of Romulus and Remus. If France is worried of invasion of coronavirus-stricken visitors from Italy, it has not said so publicly. Imagine if each of the 27 countries of the European Union closed their Schengen borders, the EU could be a goner.
Saudi Arabia has banned pilgrimages to visit Islam’s most holy shrines, from countries with coronavirus. Expect more such cases of border tightening.
What to do then? I think relax and enjoy it. This is the best time to travel. The Chinese tourists, bless them, are not there to crowd you out. After all, only two of every 100 who catch the coronavirus, will die. And even for those who die, there is always redemption.
Remember the Christian teaching. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
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