Fighting an invisible enemy (COVID-19)
By Abdelgabar Abdelrahman
Humanity is taken by surprise by COVID-19 or Coronavirus. An invisible enemy infiltrating, capable to wage all-out war against us on more than a hundred and fifty fronts (countries), covering millions of miles to threaten the entire societies simultaneously, while at the same time retaining the attack power and supply lines with a multiplying magnitude; on ground, on-air and sea.
Although it is the first time that all humanity despite across the globe and despite their divergent thoughts and attitude, allied in one front against a single enemy, the entire military arsenal available, will unlikely have any effect in confronting the weapons of this enemy, it is in fact not valid in this war. Although there are precautionary measures in place, it turns out that the world was not fully prepared for a war of this kind and scale, nor to this extent and apparently not along these broad fronts.
Humanity has previously experienced two notorious world wars, the enemies were not any but among themselves. There were always allies and axis with different causes, battles were in some occasions coordinated to take place at the same time in various fronts, but it was always warring with exposed parties, nevertheless, they use tactics and tricks to hide, however, the fact remains there, it was never of this scale, pace and magnitude COVID-19 adopts.
The way Coronavirus strikes, shows its wicked smartness and capability to choose the front to target, the victim and time very precisely keeping a pace even steadier to cause heavy fatalities in a very short time. Given causing this tremendous damage of mass killing and psychological trauma, it seems not losing except little of its killers, who surrender due to being trapped and captured by the front-line fighters of our bodies medically known as antibodies as part of the immune system.
This is an advanced version of wars against humanity waged by this virus; it has well planned for it, sophisticated and coordinated. The network the virus uses to manage, direct and coordinate this war, will no doubt reset our minds to rethink of a new approach on how do we as humans respond in the future to such kind of magnified threat.
The virus manoeuvres swiftly to control us, using the network and means we use in our daily life. The capability of the virus to bypass our vigilance is high and is subsequently subjecting our resilience to hard tests. It is also continuously pushing us into narrow and tight tunnels, where it can painfully strike the profound heart of mankind, causing many to lose their loved ones without even getting the chance to stand beside them as they pass away. This is a wicked trend to leave us with no options but shoved backs to endure subsequent hits.
COVID-19 launched this war without enduring any cost, nor paying a penny to produce and stockpile its ammunition. It did use our bodies to move its killers from a place to another, created a strong network by controlling the use of all the surfaces we touch, and transfer them into supply lines for its deadly attacks. This pandemic has carefully studied our weaknesses to plan for this war.
Our brave fighters on the front lines who are the medical workers, including doctors, nurses, biomedical and assistants in various areas of the medical field, were the first to receive the strongest blow from the virus, and it appeared in many stages of the rapid spread of the pandemic and the increase in the number of people infected with the rise of the death toll, has raised concerns about the inability of the stockpile of the medical protection kits to Withstand, concerns manifested alarmingly.
The fear that those on the front-line of the medical staff may likely at a critical point face acute shortage in the required protection kits increased, despite all official efforts done by the government to keep the pace and demand, the contemplation that they might face the enemy with bare hands and faces, remains lightning-like thunder in a dark cloudy night.
This cruel experience is no doubt shall make us re-read what we must do in the future to build up more effective strategies in our preparations for such a war, with similar invisible enemies. I reckon the broad lines for such strategies would definitely base on giving priority and extra importance to preventive health and various health services including medical research and stockpiles of medical protection kits. Strategies will also focus on society total lockdown plans, with parallel plans to secure the economy not to subject to recessional threats.
The war against Coronavirus seems to overturn the ever known war-preparation and precautionary measures theories, at least for the next century. Even though, tough measures have been placed to mitigate the negative impact or eliminate the worst of the virus’s results, what so ever success comes eventually, will be on a very high cost.
If there is a hard lesson to learn while the ongoing fight against this invisible enemy continues, it is that this is not a war of confrontation; it is a war of isolation. You cannot see the virus, do not let the virus see you. This is a message for everybody to be aware that, it is wise to evacuate the gardens, streets and defer gatherings voluntarily, and which would all be temporary, before the virus sadly evacuates us against our will in coffins. Raise the awareness to the seriousness of this pandemic, by sticking to the message of the government. “Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”.
The author is a Freelance Researcher and writer. He can be reached at email: [email protected]