Covid-19: The fightback has begun.

The pendulum swings between hope and despair, Hope from Pfizer indicating they may have a breakthrough in fighting the Covid-19 virus. It said that it had identified certain anti-viral compounds that might have the power to inhibit the spectrum of coronaviruses. Hope that a Seattle-based lab might have found a vaccine. Despair as more countries come to the conclusion that the problem is now universal and there is a need for extra vigilance, because until that solution is found the number of cases will rise and fall without any given pattern. Contrary to misplaced information there is no ethnic or geographical element in the spread.

The virus seems to be democratic and without any demographic bias. The 'we are not affected' state of mind has to surrender space to 'all of us are susceptible' acceptance. Since there is a human tendency to grasp at straws, a great deal of misinformation gets dispensed to the public and is believed because it lulls one into a sense of confidence that might be with no basis whatsoever. An unproven assessment doing the rounds is that people who eat spice and chillies and curry up are immune to the virus. There is no medical reasoning behind this. By the same measure, there is even the allegation that nations whose people live in relatively compromised hygienic conditions have a higher resistance factor and therefore can keep the virus at bay.

To put it bluntly there is no zero patient now. Again, no proof of this being valid. When these sort of scenarios are spun out oversocial platformsthey gather a sort of a scary authenticity because we are all so eager to find refuge and salvation in something. Ergo, we let our guard down falling back on the 'this won't happen to us' false sense of security. There is also occasionally an attitude of casualness that detracts from the seriousness of the situation. Let me share a recent example. The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI), for example seems impervious to the reported cases in India. Former Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly the president of the BCCI delayed the meet of the Asian Cricket Council to be held this week in the UAE but was quite blase about the virus not being an issue that would impact the IPL starting end of this month. The subject was not even discussed at the meet of the IPL Governing Council and that indifference seems to be totally out of line especially since it being absent from the agenda was announced with pride. Talk about guarding the cash-rich...