By Sunney Tharappan
Leaders of powerful nations in the world have let us down in front of the Covid-19 pandemic. They were assisted in their failure by the uncomplimentary endeavours of many leaders who lived before them for over several decades.
Let me take you through a few perspectives to justify my above statements.
The human is the most effective phenomenon, indeed the most complex too, of all available on earth. With the most powerful weapon on earth, his brain, and its associate, the mind, he seemed to have easily overpowered the rest of the earth. Undoubtedly, he did make several disastrous interventions in the remaining areas of the earthly resources that have brought in untold miseries and he still is making them again and again; destroying the balance that ought to exist between and among humans and the ecosystems. Alongside, there are several lapses that he has made which resulted in unalterable destruction for humans themselves.
Three disasters used to visit humans on earth for tens of thousands of years. However, fifty to sixty thousand years ago, there was what the archeologists and historians call the Cognitive Revolution; humans learnt the art of learning itself. This took or rather led the humans to progress, especially learning to deal with the three disasters that they had to face regularly – war, famine and epidemics. As they progressed into the twenty-first century, humans were sure that these three were consigned to the past. No country wants a world war for obvious reasons of possible total destruction, including those most powerful. As far as famine is concerned, there weren’t famines that could not be managed and even if one country suffered from any, other counties would help. After the twenties of the twenty-first century, humanity did not face an epidemic which would take away millions of lives.
And then, much to their disbelief, Covid-19 struck, making people believe a global disaster is unavoidable. Historians as well as social and medical scientists ask a pertinent question. Was this avoidable?
We had leant about this virus almost sixty years ago, and its mutations were also noticed, a possible outbreak was also predicted by the knowledgeable, but the leaders of the world paid no heed to the wise counsel of those who had worked in the field. Some even argued that even if discovered, vaccines may not be effective because the virus mutates. Just as humans made several types of weapons of mass destruction, they had to make several types of vaccines for different viruses because these were more needed than guns or missiles.
Today, we stand at the edge of a precipice with ominous signs. A possible death of ten lakh people in India during the next six months is predicted. Again, it is anticipated that there may be more than two crore with Covid-19 by January 2021and with lockdowns from time to time, the economy would be badly affected, so much so that the number of deaths due to poverty may be more than those due to Covid-19. If this is the case with a country like India, the possible deaths of people in Africa and Latin America could be much more. The consolation line seems to be the reference to possibilities of reduction of death rates all over the world in comparison with active cases. It is heartening to note that several countries are getting ready to test on humans the vaccines they have discovered. USSR plans to produce thirty million doses of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine domestically this year with the potential to manufacture a further 170 million abroad. Tests involving thirty-eight people successfully done ended by mid-July. Researchers concluded that it is safe. A larger trial involving several thousands of people is expected to begin in August 2020.
News from London reports that the researchers at the University of Oxford had a breakthrough for a Covid-19 vaccine and they are supposed to have discovered a double protection against the deadly virus following the early stage of human trials, according to media reports in the UK. The dose of this vaccine is supposed to produce antibodies and T-cells. The discoveries are promising because separate studies have suggested that antibodies may fade away within months, whereas the T-cells can stay in circulation of blood for years.
Meanwhile, Chinese-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi using up to fifteen thousand volunteers. The human trial is a joint effort between two companies of both nations. According to WHO, there are twenty-three potential vaccines for Covid-19 in human trials, out of which three are in large scale late stage of trials in efficacy.
As far as India is concerned, Zydus Cadila and Bharat Bio-tech, both, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research, have succeeded in preparing vaccines that have got a nod from the drug regulatory body of the country to conduct human trials. Their efforts will help the country develop preventive strategies for future disease outbreaks as well. Their commencement of human trials is a very important step in the fight against the pandemic and it will help the nation combat the health care challenge. These vaccines are believed to support the creation of a strong immune response in humans as has already been discovered in multiple animal species like mice, rats, guinea pigs, and rabbits.
No doubt, these are great achievements in the middle of tragic circumstances. Undoubtedly, it may be unwise to use the vaccine unless the side effects of the vaccine are measured, which definitely will take much more time. No vaccine shows its negative impacts in a short time, a discovery that had been made by medical scientists across the world.
A pertinent question connected to the title of this article is to be raised here. In a period of six months, several countries, as described earlier, have discovered a vaccine after the pandemic spread to the whole world and killed more than five lakh people. Why did they not do this in the last sixty years after the Coronavirus was identified and its disastrous consequences known? This is where we notice the global leadership failure. Countries have conducted research on several things for human needs from better quality lipstick through long-range missiles. Thousands of researchers across the world have researched to see the effect of the smallest of a pistol which could be in the holder of a soldier because there are human-made enemies including waging a possible war against a country.
Humans have mixed up their priorities in their acceptance of the challenge against their enemies. There are natural enemies and human-made enemies. Floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and the like are likely to occur from time to time and these are natural enemies of humanity. Some of these convert themselves to be human-made enemies like war because they have destroyed the natural regulatory systems of relationships between the humans and earth’s ecosystems. The humans have to alter their priority for researching on better and more effective arms and ammunitions and turn to research more on natural enemies like a Coronavirus. A biological scientist may even argue that the spread of the Coronavirus maybe because of the destruction of the natural balance between and among humans, wildlife, and ecosystems.
The tragedy is worse because of the failure of world leadership. There is no leader worth the name to lead in solidarity on behalf of the whole humanity to fight against the Coronavirus. Characters like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson, or Xi Jinping not only do not command the respect of the world but also do not have the wisdom to create world solidarity against even a small virus. While political consciousness is one of the characteristics of modern humans, it becomes disastrous when it is attached to parochial needs and one-upmanship of even democratic leaders. The sad predicament at this moment of tragic crisis of a small virus overpowering the entire humanity is the lack of world leaders who can command the respect of the whole world for a social, political and economic need of standing against a natural enemy, maybe even a manmade one from different perspectives.
About the author
Prof Sunney Tharappan taught English language and literature for more than two decades. He is now the Director of College for Leadership and HRD, Mangaluru. He trains, writes, and lives in Mangaluru.
