COVID 19: Now The ‘Doubt Virus’ Must Be Exterminated!
Common people mostly have fickle minds; they are always guided by what
they want to believe, often to their advantage. When they are worried, frightened
and clueless about the future they are most vulnerable to doubt and conspiracy
theories. For the last six months people all over the globe are very disturbed
by the COVID 19 pandemic, not so much because of the deadly effects of the
virus than the restrictions and lockdowns derailing normal life it has brought
in its wake. They desperately need to go back to the sweet normal times and live
happily ever after, and therefore they jump to accept and believe fully when
some motivated souls offer that ‘COVID 19 is a hoax, it’s nothing more than an
annual influenza’. Thus the ‘doubt virus’ is created and the social media as
always helps it spread—at times much faster than the killer virus. Perhaps the basic impulses for skepticism stem from the facts that more than 80% of Coronavirus positive cases are mild in nature and recover easily, only the elderly with comorbidity are most vulnerable and that on average the death rate is low at 1 to 4% except for some countries. However, facts also show that the dead includes young people too and anyone can be infected by this most contagious virus.
The conspiracy theories originated in the United States, as always, where
extraordinarily ‘democratic’ sections of the citizens opposed the lockdown and
restrictions from the beginning symbolizing these with the ‘agenda’ of President
Trump. Several conspiracy theories linking even the tragic murder of George Floyd
started doing the rounds in the US of which we will not make a description here
just to prevent vulnerable minds go through and inculcate doubts. We’d only
like to mention here that this writer got a social media forward giving a link
to an article by some ‘enlightened soul’ who took pains of great arguments to ‘prove’
that the pandemic is a ‘political hoax’. As we mentioned earlier a lot of
vulnerable people got influenced by this, and none other than a medical surgeon
of the Indian state of Assam who even lodged a FIR alleging that only an ‘annual
influenza’ has been labeled as a pandemic and he wanted action against the concerned
governments. This, naturally, created a chain of reactions in the state driving
news channels asking the hapless common people about their ‘doubts’ on the
COVID 19 infections rather than destroying the dilemma.
Now, this ‘annual influenza’ theory breaks down at the basic premise
itself: if that is so then this phenomenon must be occurring every year, and
why then this year should be so different! Governments need not have gone on an
emergency drive to create more and more healthcare facilities including ICU
beds just to tackle an annual event of flu. Then come the experiences of
various affected countries and governments tackling this ‘annual influenza’ some
of which we narrate below as arguments to break such kinds of fake and
motivated views:
1.
Let us take the example of the Chinese experiment. Ignoring
a lot of conspiracy theories about China itself we just ask here why would China
need absolute authoritarian measures to tackle the virus (well, even annual
influenza is caused by a virus) in terms of continuous lockdown and rigorous
enforcement. After being successful in keeping the infected numbers below
100,000 the country is still fearing a second outbreak, and risking its economic
downswing again to prevent its spread. Its aggression against India can also be
explained as a part of its apparent desperation. An annual flu cannot explain
these.
2.
Why would countries like UK, Italy, Spain, France,
USA and Brazil suffer so much from an annual influenza that killed more than
half a million so far and is still on its deadly prowls? Why would Italy reduce itself to a state of helplessness with dead bodies of Corona patients littered everywhere or why
would German finance minister commit suicide over Corona worries? How one is to account for a death rate
of over 14% (seen in a few countries) for an annual influenza virus?
3.
Why would the doctors and experts of the World
Health Organization keep on telling ‘lies’ that the new Coronavirus is very
dangerous that would probably stay for more than two years and the worst is yet
to come despite whatever campaigns or actions going on or taken against it? We seemed
to have accepted in the beginning that this pandemic is the biggest crisis ever
faced by humankind. Now, why have second thoughts and doubts?
4.
Why would countries across the world keep on taking
huge risks for an economic crash with unprecedented unemployment and pave the
way for a recession possibly even worse than the Great Depression? In particular,
why a developing country and a most promising upcoming world power like India
should risk whatever it has achieved in development so far.
5.
Why is such a mad rush all over the globe to fast-track
production of a vaccine against only an annual flu? At least such an intensive
medical research cannot mask a hidden agenda whatever that may be.
In the last twenty-four hours new cases in India have crossed 22000 with
the only solace that daily recoveries are more in numbers and death rate is fortunately
still low; the concern being a rising positivity rate indication community transmission.
At this crucial juncture we should not pay heed to conspiracy theories and fake
news. Such theories have obvious goals: to generate publicity for unknown
groups or to make a kill in terms of profit. For example, if a link for an article
with sensational and terrifying headlines gets circulated across social media and
motivated media outlets think of the kind of clicks being generated which
directly translate into money.
Therefore, we must not fall prey to such propaganda at any cost. It is
heartening to see that several social media platforms have taken steps to
neutralize the conspiracy threads. In relation
to India, we need to say here that the government should find time to brief the
media frequently as it had been doing earlier to describe facts and quell doubts
instead of crouching behind the rising numbers. Similarly, most respected bodies
like the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) should desist from publicizing
dates for production of vaccines. The announcement by the ICMR that a vaccine might
be made possible by 15th of August 2020 has furthered the doubts already
created with even sensible people and the media asking why should the ICMR be
in such a hurry. The mantra at this hour must be to fight the killer virus with
the combined might of the world and to defeat it preventing its possible second
wave.
Comments