All else can wait

The coronavirus is the biggest and most serious problem facing the entire world. The virus has spread to above 70 countries and world leaders should be galvanising themselves – as well as their countries – to manage what is clearly a mammoth challenge (“Italy declares lockdown as COVID-19 debilitates nation,” Mar.11, Gulf Today).

The virus has taken many lives and disrupted the economy of many countries, even dampening global economic prospects. Countries should sink their political, religious and ideological differences to merge their medical resources and research capabilities to fight it.

Leaders like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi etc, should pool their national medical research teams to find a cure. Mankind has evolved weapons like the atom bomb and nuclear missiles that kill people in a war. Surely, mankind can also discover an antidote to save human lives. Finding an antidote to coronavirus should be the top priority for world leaders. Everything else can wait.

If the virus spreads further, it could cause immense human and economic damage across the world. I dread to think of the consequences if the virus spreads to some highly populated South Asian and African countries, where standards of hygiene might not be very high and where medical facilities might be inadequate. Thus, finding a solution to coronavirus expeditiously is the number one challenge that confronts the entire world today.

US Vice President Mike Pence has declared that a treatment for coronavirus “could literally be available by this summer, or early fall.” Unfortunately this is not good enough. The cure for coronavirus has to be found within weeks, if not days. The world has many bright scientists and medical researchers. They should pool their minds and resources and work non-stop jointly, to find an antidote. This is critical.

Many articles and comments in the global press talk about falling markets and suffering companies. Stock markets and companies will bounce back. However, the human beings who lose their lives will not return. This is a heavy price to pay. Every human being is a family member and leaves a great void in his home and community. So, we just need to labour round-the-clock to find an antidote for coronavirus.

Rajendra Aneja
Mumbai, India