Speak up before its too late...

Are we missing something in this fight? The corona viruses existed for thousands of years per scientists and virologists.. We are only catching up right now. The New Yorker article on “From Bats to Human Lungs, the Evolution of a Corona virus” is a interesting read.

https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/from-bats-to-human-lungs-the-evolution-of-a-coronavirus

The Xenophobia that we see today is nothing but over reaction and some conspiracy theory. The origin of the corona virus is china from initial reports. This is not the time to bring up those old conspiracy theories and throw the country and people under the business.. Please for God's sake stop saying “china is responsible”for this pandemic. As humans, it was our responsibility to look at the signs and warnings.. This is a long shot but we need to introspect and look at the root of the problem and not blame a community or country for the pandemic. As I stated in one of the posts, we only have more questions than answers.

The novel viruses were from the horseshoe bats and they carry 40-50 viruses. We only have seen a few so far and the Covid-19 is fatal as we do not have any vaccine. If we look at the studies around the world.. We have not spent enough resources to study the SARS and novel viruses.. The new yorker article is an opener and we can see that we humans neglected and ignored the signs. We even canceled the SARS conference in 2003. Off late, there has been some research and studies on the SARS and MERs epidemic. It is human nature to blame others and people in few countries have started social isolation and xenophobic slurs. Labeling people corona or calling someone “Chinese virus” is not going to help.. The virus also doesn't differentiate when it comes to humans.. It will happily mutate regardless of sex,religion, caste..

There is research and studies that can help us identify the different viruses.. The covid-19 or COV2 type is fatal and we dont know what is in store for us.. Are we ready to look at the other type of viruses that the Horseshoe bats carry? We are dealing with a situation where hospitals and emergency rooms are only looking at patients affected by the COVID-19. There are also reports that people with no travel history were also infected. This could be due to community spread and many countries have pushed for complete lock-down. With every action comes an equal and opposite reaction.. The Lock-down worked in few countries and that was one way to handle the situation.. However, the countries didn't leave the marginalized sections on their own.. The situation was controlled when there was a contingency plan and people were provided assurances on daily supplies and financial support. This would also mean the country will have to make a dent on treasury dept. This is not sustainable plan but it will at-least help people settle down during the lock-down..

The answers we should be looking would require adequate time and resources. There may be data available that can be used to study the horseshoe bats or anything related to that. Do we have enough data to make a breakthrough? There is also need for world leaders to come together and form an association and not look at drugs or vaccines that they can cash on. As with the software industry, there is a Open source software and everyone contributes and there is no monopoly or 1 party taking credit. There is united nations and there is WHO who have been the front lines but do they have enough resources to tackle a pandemic? We were prepared and spent millions and billions on Ammunition, weapons, Surface-to-air missile and what not. Is any of that helping with the current situation that we have on hand? It is our collective failure and we neglected the warnings. For heaven's sake, can we ask the leaders to think wisely and push for reforms and spend on resources that would make an impact on the world we live? We humans only have a limited time on this earth and if we spend all of those years fighting political and religious battles, there will not be anyone left coz there will be another novel virus or pandemic that would be even more fatal. There is no magic pill or vaccine but when there are signs and warnings, we should have a system that alerts other nations and we should have a disaster management plan.. Its not rocket science but we can definitely use our limited understanding of the ecosystem to develop a plan that can solve today's problems. The Ego and pride of the leaders that they are superior to others need to be on the back burner. We humans have an identity and we would have a country we can call our home.. We also are citizens of the world and we have equal responsibility is preserving the nature.. If leaders are playing with the sentiments and think they can manipulate the human brains, it will be good to show them their place. Religion is a way of life for some.. Religion defines a few people but then religion shouldn't be only criteria. We make decisions based on the religious ideologies but if there are people who dont belong to the same ideology, we dont have any right to shove our ideology or opinion on others.. This is a topic that will require wider debate and thought... So lets hope people use every medium to call out the wrong and not keep silent.. it will be too late if we let the leaders do things their way... Think wisely and use the God given wisdom...

Going back to the previous topic, the current research should be expanded and we should make sure research and development is #1 priority for the nation. This means opening up borders and opening up to the world.. The world leaders are good at diplomacy and we have seen visionaries who looked at the long-term impact. what we do today would have an impact and if we dont use spend on the right things, we wouldn't be able to provide a better tomorrow for the next generation.

For argument sake, if we were to start from scratch... we can use existing research and look at the cues... What we know today through gene testing is that the novel viruses are from horseshoe bats. We also know that the bats live with 40-50 viruses.. We have found a vaccine for the common flu and also contained the virus from spreading with the FLU vaccine.. There is a rabies injection if someone is bitten by a dog or another animal that has rabies. When I was looking at what the bats eat, i came across the dung beetle.. They also eat flies, spiders and few other things... There are few articles that says the spiders and few animals wont be able to survive the viruses and not the reason for the human transmission. I've been fascinated by the dung beetle which is also a food for the bats... There aren't enough studies that shows the dung beetle would survive the corona viruses.. The substance derived from the beetle is used for some wart treatment and used in ancient medicine around the world.

Did the virus transmit to humans through the flies,spiders or dung beetle? As the virus was around for thousands of years, we never looked or tested people for that.. There is no clear picture on how the virus that bats carry around transmitted to humans. Its possible that a few individuals in the past may have been misdiagnosed as common flu. These people may have recovered with the drugs available or due to low mortality rate.. The transmission to humans is a mystery right now and hope researchers consider all these factors when they try to identify the root of the problem. If there isn't enough evidence, we can rule this out than live with uncertainty or unknown gap. I've posted something earlier on dung beetles as well

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are personal and if someone wants to use this in their research, please feel free to quote the article/blog.

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