Coronavirus is a warning to the future – The Punch

The flu epidemic that occurred more than 100 years ago was a disaster to the world, and there was no word to adequately explain the suffering that countries experienced. The death toll was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide. The idea of ​​having a replica or a more rampant virus, without preparation or justification, and without a proper plan for what’s coming next, staggers and scares the imagination.

This type of virus is a bolt from blue. It’s like fighting a war. Rather than fighting the past, war is fought with a sense of urgency and desperation to win. That is the approach the world needs at the moment.

How is the world prepared for another virus?

The 1918 influenza pandemic above was the most serious pandemic in recent history, before anyone thought I was crazy. It is estimated that about 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, are infected with the virus.

More than 80 years later, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome caused by SARS-Cov raised its ugly head. It was first confirmed in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China in November 2002. More than 8,000 people have been infected from different countries and at least 774 people have died worldwide. During the period of SARS-CoV, there were some common sense precautions applied to control the infection. This includes frequent hand washing with soap and water and the use of alcohol-based hand rubbing. Others have used dirty hands to avoid touching the eyes, nose, and mouth, and sometimes covering the nose and mouth with a tissue or handkerchief when coughing or sneezing.

Still, at various times of the outbreak, it put more strain on the health care system. By fighting viruses, you can’t fight the past, but you can learn great lessons to move forward. From the United States to Italy, Italy to France, France to Spain, Spain to the United Kingdom, the death toll is very calm and the number of infected people continues to grow. Around the world, it’s the same story of inadequate protection for hospitals and caring for front-line home staff. It’s a warning to the future.

I delved into history and found that vaccines were not immediately developed to meet current demand. Therefore, you need to adapt to ongoing threats and provide immediate response to mitigate them.

Therefore, history leaves us with the fact that a dire time will come. When it comes, we must isolate their contact with those who are showing signs of illness. In developing countries like Nigeria, there are warnings that our healthcare sector must be spoiled and developed. The nation is a precursor to healthcare development and must be an arbitrator between the accumulation of wealth and the improvement of health by a small number of people. I don’t really agree with the local saying that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost, and when health is lost, something is lost.

COVID-19 is a warning to the future that if a similar virus is observed in the future, public meetings should be banned and weddings, funerals, concerts, sporting events and religious service should be withheld. Countries must take the threat of viral disease seriously at the onset. In the early stages of the virus, some countries were more interested in panic caused by the virus than in the virus itself, and today we can see the implications of a casual attitude.

The United States and the United Kingdom are currently in containment to avoid a serious second wave of epidemics. In Nigeria, you can’t afford the second wave of the dreaded virus. Apart from the economic point of view, there are not enough beds available to accommodate those that are positive in the intensive care unit, and there are not enough isolation centers to isolate them. This is one of the main reasons why people are not evacuated globally in some parts of the world.

If the world needs to learn lessons from COVID-19, countries must eliminate careless assumptions, cultural ignorance, and careless planning. The health sector needs to look like a masterpiece of meticulous preparation, and the health sector needs to be on the path to a better future.

In light of the above, the developed nations of this world thought they were ready in any situation thrown at them, but current events have shown us that they were not. .. That’s a big lesson for all of us-we were ignorant, overconfident and unprepared, but unfortunately people can die like rustling leaves in tropical forests. Therefore, COVID-19 is a warning to the future.

Orsagna Anjorin, Lagos.

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