Turning the Coronavirus Crisis into An Opportunity
Man has been fighting so many enemies for so long. Apart from the ever-lurking threat of modern nuclear warfare, man has had to endure disasters, both human-made and natural. From man-made disasters such as the Chernobyl and the Fukushima reactor meltdown crises to natural disasters such as hurricane Irma and Katrina, man has always been struggling to survive. Perhaps one of the most devastating crises the world has ever endured in the 21st century is the corona virus pandemic. No period in the 21st-century history has a disease ever infected so many in so short a time and caused untold suffering as the corona virus pandemic has done. Viruses have ravaged the world for so long a time. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is estimated to have infected over 500 million people and killed over 50 million worldwide. The 2009 swine flu pandemic infected over 1.6 million people and killed approximately 18000 people worldwide. Then comes the corona virus pandemic. Ever since it was reported in late October 2019, it has infected almost 3.5 million people and killed approximately 250,000 across the globe. The virus has wreaked so much havoc. Billions of dollars have been lost in the last 4 months. Economies are crumbling, people are starving, and hope is fast fading for a vast majority across the world. However, all is not lost. Something good can certainly come out of this pandemic. Something to ensure that never again will the human population be so quickly decimated by a virus of any strain.
Man has remarkably won the battle against the bacteria ever since the discovery of antibiotics. Imagine if Alexander Flemming had discovered penicillin in the 13th century. Millions of lives could have been saved from the Bubonic plague. Penicillin as a vaccine singlehandedly cured so many bacterial illnesses from dreaded leprosy to diseases such as Gonorrhoea. The world became a happier place to live in once antibiotics were discovered. A battle was won against the unseen bacteria. Prior to 1980, the viral smallpox caused so many deaths and suffering. But this disease was remarkably eradicated forever when everybody was vaccinated against it. The battle against viruses is soon going to come to an end only if a generic viral cure is discovered during these times of crisis.
Research against viruses has never been advanced as it is today. The current virology research centers are certainly more advanced than Alexander Flemming’s laboratory. This means that man currently has the capacity to come up with a generic antiviral drug that can cure all viruses. The world virology scientists have to collaborate together to save the man against viruses once and for all. This calls for rapid problem solving and innovation. In times of disaster like this, if all the scientists are going to have effective communication and coordination, its highly possible to kick out all the virus forever. Just as the Deep-Water Horizon crisis resulted in the invention of the Capping Stack to prevent undersea oil spills forever, this is an opportune moment to invent a cure for all the viruses. If all the virologists came together, we are certainly going to come up with a wonder antiviral drug that can cure not only coronavirus but also other dreaded diseases such as the HIV viruses.