Covid-19. A battle that will be lost..
Have we ever won a battle between human and microorganism? Since the beginning of time, we were always a colonizer in this planet. Bacteria, virus, and all the simple organism have been living in this world longer than us. As more complex organism developed, the first thing that we do to survive in this world full of microorganism was to prepare ourselves to fight them. Our immune system was created or evolved specifically to fight this indigenous inhabitant of planet earth.
If we look back to the previous pandemics, can we count how many time we have won against the pathogen? The pandemic ended, but do we claim the victory? Let us look to the recent MERS-Cov epidemic. It started in the Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, 858 deaths has been reported comprising of 35% from 2494 patients infected. Up until today, there are still a few sporadic cases have been reported(or non reported) but they only happen in the middle east. Can we claim victorious from this epidemic? We manage to control it, but we lost a lot.
If we look at the 2009 pH1N1 and also the HIV pandemic, until today we are still dealing and fighting them tirelessly. Still we can't eliminate them from the surface of the earth. The only microorganism that we "eradicate" totally, was small pox virus. Still, we can't claim victorious. Many have died due to that virus.
Why can't we become the victor in the battle against microorganism? The reason is simple, because we are human. We are complex life, with emotion, self awareness, living in social group, family, friends, and we have so much to lose. The microorganism is just a protein, with a gene that code only for one thing - to replicate, to reproduce and survive. They were the ultimate enemy with nothing to lose. With that, they will never lose any battle.
Some people are too optimistic in this current pandemic. I can assure that we will lose (if we are not already) in this battle. However, similar to all the previous pandemic and epidemic, we will re-emerge stronger and perhaps more prepared in the future. The virus will too. It's cat and mouse game. It will never end.
In any battle, we still enjoyed the little thing such as celebrating the end of war. Even if we lost. So, I do think that it is not too much to hope for a win against COVID-19. We should continue fighting.
If we look back to the previous pandemics, can we count how many time we have won against the pathogen? The pandemic ended, but do we claim the victory? Let us look to the recent MERS-Cov epidemic. It started in the Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, 858 deaths has been reported comprising of 35% from 2494 patients infected. Up until today, there are still a few sporadic cases have been reported(or non reported) but they only happen in the middle east. Can we claim victorious from this epidemic? We manage to control it, but we lost a lot.
If we look at the 2009 pH1N1 and also the HIV pandemic, until today we are still dealing and fighting them tirelessly. Still we can't eliminate them from the surface of the earth. The only microorganism that we "eradicate" totally, was small pox virus. Still, we can't claim victorious. Many have died due to that virus.
Why can't we become the victor in the battle against microorganism? The reason is simple, because we are human. We are complex life, with emotion, self awareness, living in social group, family, friends, and we have so much to lose. The microorganism is just a protein, with a gene that code only for one thing - to replicate, to reproduce and survive. They were the ultimate enemy with nothing to lose. With that, they will never lose any battle.
Some people are too optimistic in this current pandemic. I can assure that we will lose (if we are not already) in this battle. However, similar to all the previous pandemic and epidemic, we will re-emerge stronger and perhaps more prepared in the future. The virus will too. It's cat and mouse game. It will never end.
In any battle, we still enjoyed the little thing such as celebrating the end of war. Even if we lost. So, I do think that it is not too much to hope for a win against COVID-19. We should continue fighting.
Comments
Post a Comment
Please leave your comment below.