I recently read a very very interesting article by/about virologist; Nathan Wolfe. He published a book in 2011 – The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age.
Whilst I know a few of my friends are Covid-19 deniers, it’s a very real thing, and not going to be the last viral pandemic we face. In the past few decades (and earlier- think HIV) we’ve had multiple outbreaks of deadly viruses: Ebola, SARS, avian flu: H7 & H9, Zika, Mers….and these are but a few that some of us have heard of (e.g. registered on our radar), and yes, the oft declared ‘winter flu’.
Covid-19 is not going to be the last major pandemic. Of course a lot of people will deny this and say its doom-mongering, doesn’t exist etc etc, but the reality is that we are cutting down the jungles (Think palm oil, cattle, soya etc.) at an unprecedented rate in the last 30 years+ and these viruses are going to affect us.
Deny it if you will, and mostly people who haven’t yet been affected are the most likely to, but these viruses are very real. And of course we have all the gurus with their videos etc etc. But, Covid-19 had the potential to kill many more than have died, and as annoying as it is, lockdown is the reason it didn’t. Yes, its been catastrophic for the economy (estimated cost to the worldwide economy according to Dr Wolfe is $8trillion) but what’s the balance? Would you have been okay with the virus running rampant and killing more people? Your family? Friends?
The UK government dilly-dallied and considered going that route, but fortunately (or not) they finally got their act together and 23.03.20 we got lockdown. If only a couple of hundred people died in your country, be grateful. As you likely know, the UK hasn’t been that fortunate.
As more people are affected by climate change (yeah, yeah to the deniers…whatever) and starvation in Africa, and India, Indonesia, we’re going to see more economic migrants seeking food and water….and on the flip side of the coin, we have the rapacious west gobbling up resources, living more consumeristic lifestyles, demanding the latest and best of everything; creating more billionaires who get wealthy on our demands and create more destruction, cut down more jungle (Bolsenaro) and as our populations grow and grow creating more demand for cheap cheap cheap everything; food, clothes, houses, cars, fuel, TVs, phones, holidays, flights….
But what do the experts know?
(And this doesn’t even take into account the devastation we are causing with our throw-away plastic).
We are the architects of our own destruction.
And as the world is now experiencing a 2nd wave of infections, and a mutant strain of Covid-19 has started spreading in the UK, I wonder where we’ll be a year from now, and how effective are the vaccines going to be?
I’m going to have to order the book.
Not Just a Granny 
You must be logged in to post a comment.